(2 of 3)
Since Italian diplomacy is particularly adult and the British is too, members of the entourage of Sir Eric and Count Ciano> said with aplomb that of course the pact is a perfectly cold-blooded piece of advantage-seeking on both sides and that if it ever becomes to British or Italian interest to heave it into Europe's dustbin, that is where it will go, with no hard feelings between the diplomatic professionals. They have simply tried to end the insanity of the British Constitutional Democratic Monarchy having ever found itself in a quarrel with the Italian Fascist Corporative Monarchy—these two being "natural friends," with endless common interests, few valid points of friction.
After some days of "courtesy delay" while the pact was privately circulated to the Mediterranean Powers and won a good press in England before anyone really knew what was in it, the text was made public. On its face Britain and Italy agree that ships of both countries have "freedom of entry to, exit from and transit through the Mediterranean" and they "disclaim any desire to modify, or, so far as they are concerned, to see modified the status quo as regards national sovereignty in the Mediterranean area."
These smooth words can mean anything in Spain, for Italy has recognized the Whites as the government of that country, while Britain continues to recognize the government against which the Whites are fighting. In these circumstances II Duce could and did contribute to maintaining the status quo in Spain last week by sending another 10,000 Italian troops to aid the Whites (see p. 23) and this did not seem to shock official Britain. In an annex to the pact, Count Ciano declared, with particular reference to the Balearics, that "so far as Italy is concerned the integrity of present territories of Spain shall in all circumstances remain intact and unmodified." This said nothing about the large Italian force at present in the Balearics, and Count Ciano may have given his "assurance" in the Pickwickian sense that the Fascists will keep the Reds out of the Balearics and make them safe for the Whites.
British public opinion will now be educated by its press as to the Italy of today and the significance of Fascism as a movement Conservative in the British sense. The claim of Italian social workers that "nowhere in the world is labor so well-protected as in Italy under the Fascist regime" is being comfortably noised this week in England. The Fascist maternity aid, child-training centres, workmen's sport fields and theatres, public works such as motor roads, reclamation of marsh lands, building of new cities, construction of transatlantic liners, excavations of noble Roman ruins, and colonization of Ethiopia are all positive achievements. The negative catcalls of Communists in the Daily Worker most certainly will not perturb Britain, nor frighten British investors in Glorious Ethiopia Ltd.