ITALY AND ABYSSINIA [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—After
all the palaver concerning .Italy's " case " it is refreshing to see that The Spectator at any rate, realizes the real cause for the Italian refusal to state it. May I be allowed to call attention to One reason for this attitude' of negation ?• In a recent letter to The Times a correspondent, whose authoritative knowledge of the country is unquestionable, told all who doubted whether Wal-Wal belongs to AbySiiinia or to Italy to look at the map for " all maps published up to and 'including those of 1983, show Wal-Wal to bp not less .than 60 miles within Abyssinian territory." He also related that in a large Italian map at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, published within the last two or three years, it is represented as even as much as 100 miles within the Abyssinian boundary. Therefore the Italians at the Hague, with characteristic effrontery, declined to consider a patent fact to which, one imagines, only they in the wide world can be wilfully blind.. Had the .wider issue been included Italy's arraignment of Abyssinia as the aggressor at Wal-Wal must have fallen to the ground: But Roma locuta, causa finita ! and Con- ,
ciliation " was once again tossed to the winds.
If this lunacy persists can anyone be blamed for. hoping that the famOus proverb Quern Deus vult perdere, prises gementat, will be fulfilled in its entirety ?—Yours faithfully, .Preshwater Bay, Isle of Wight. BEATRICE O'CONOR.
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