* * * * A Militarised Italy .
The resolutions adopted by the Fascist Grand Council on Monday regarding the militarisation of Italy are no doubt .the normal response of Italy in her present temper to the British defence programme. For Italy's present temper shows few traces of the influence of the recent Anglo-Italian understand- ing, for all the studied politeness of the reference to it in the Fascist Grand Council's statement. The last paragraph of the statement, on the need to be ready to meet " the eventual aggression of countries rich in money and possessing greater natural resources," appears to be meant for Downing Street. The main points of the resolution are " the integral militarisation of all the active forces of the nation from 18 to 55 years " and the sacrifice, " even total if necessary " of civil to military needs. This is a rather vague programme. It is doubtful whether Italy can be much more militarised than she is already, and still more doubtful whether she can find more money than she is already finding for armaments. Abyssinia is still, and will long be, a heavy drain on her resources. But the statement supplies still further evidence of the need, on which Mr. Eden touched in the House of Commons on Tuesday, for some new attempt at an agreed limitation of armaments. Failing that, our own defence programme was inevitable, but our own defence programme—as its effect on Italy shows—makes an agreement so much the more urgent.
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