A Disturbing Speech Signor Mussolini's speech at Genoa on Saturday
no doubt had purposes not written on its surface, but it is hardly calculated to increase enthusiasm for the Anglo-Italian agreement in this country. The Duce presumably had his own reasons for emphasising the ardour and durability of his friendship for Germany, and no one here will take any particular exception to that. But the thinly disguised attempt to drive a wedge between Britain and France can only have the effect of impressing on both the importance of an unbroken unity between them. The negotiations which led to the Anglo-Italian accord were in the circum- stances justifiable and necessary, but our relations with France are of a different substance and texture from those with Italy. Between London and Paris there exists an unclouded confidence such as it will take long to establish— though every effort must be made to establish it—between London and Rome. And when Signor Mussolini says that he is divided from France because he wants the victory of Franco in Spain, and implies that he is not divided from Britain on that issue, he is making assumptions which Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Halifax ought openly to repudiate. There is, it is to be hoped, no shadow of difference between our attitude and France's in regard to Spain, and if Signor Mussolini means that he is going to keep his troops in Spain till General Franco's victory is assured, he is endorsing all the worst constructions that have been put on the Perth- Ciano agreement.
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