NEWS OF THE WEEK
WHAT the position in Abyssinia today is no one in this country can tell with any certainty. Foreign correspondents have been ejected from Addis Ababa and all news from inside Abyssinia comes through Rome. Something no doubt can be derived from the observation- post at Djibuti, but as to how far the so-called pacification of the country has been carried, and by what methods it has been effected, we know too little to provide basis for any judgements of value, though the last messages to get through from the capital told of ruthless mass- executions of natives convicted of carrying arms in face of a prohibition which most of them had not seen or did not understand. Meanwhile, the League of Nations States have to face, in three weeks' time, the decisive question whether sanctions are to be maintained, with or without intensification, or abandoned. It is being asked in many quarters what the object of maintaining them would be, and'the suggestion is usually added that the League is merely trying to save its face. If by that is meant that the League intends to vindicate its authority, that is an object well worth achieving. But there is much more at stake than that. The. question asked is reasonable and deserves a reasoned answer. For there is no ease for vindictive action and none for merely punitive action. If sanctions are maintained, it must be with a definite object in view.
