The League and Abyssinia The gravity of the crisis created
by the relations between Italy and Abyssinia does not diminish. Italian tactics at Geneva are not yet fully disclosed. It is possible that Baron Aloisi is empowered to _conform to c normal League procedure it the. last moment. If not " it is the duty of all other members of the League Council, first and foremost Great Britain and France, to stand with inflexible firmness by the provisions of the Covenant, Which Abyssinia has quite properly invoked. They can evade it only in the open knowledge that such a betrayal would condemn the League to impotence at the very moment when the road to its assumption of a decisive role in Europe seems open. Italy has been treated with the utmost consideration. There has been a studious avoidance abroad of language which she would entitled to resent. But that she should claim the right. to disregard her pledges under the Kellogg Pact, and dispense with the League procedure which would be Unhesitatingly applied in the case of a smaller PoWer,' would be intolerable. The League Powers must stand by their own pledges as League members and insist on holding the balance absolutely even between Italy and Abyssinia, even if it means Italy's withdrawal from Geneva. No such development as that need be contem- plated, but it would be a far lesser evil than any weak capitulation to a Great Power at the sacrifice of justice to a weak and undeveloped State. On the original Matter in dispute Italy may prove to be in the right, though it seems unlikely, but in withstanding the normal working of League machinery Signor Mussoliniis putting himself so completely in the wrong that no Council member could in honour or decency 'support him. '* * * *
