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ITALY'S PLACE
IN WAR
Rumors Denied in
Rome
LONDON, April 30 (A.A.P.) .
There is no information in London
regarding the sensational reports
from Berne and Buenos Aires sug
gesting an imminent crisis in the
Italian Fascist regime.
While Rome semi-offlcially empha
tically denies the reports of an Ital
ian desire for a separate peace, say
ing that Italy entered the war of her
own free will and was resolved to
carry on to victory, the "Dally
Mail's" special correspondent (Mr.
Ward Price), whose knowledge of
Italy is extensive and who knows
Mussolini personally, asks, "What is
behind the secret meetings of the
Crown Council, which King Victor
Emmanuel held and at which neither
Mussolini nor any leading Fascist
was present, while Marshal Badoglio,
who is regarded not only as an op
ponent of Mussolini but possibly the
head of an alternative Government,
was present ?"
The correspondent suggested that
there were two explanations. The
first, was the expectation that Hitler
would have made an Important pro
nouncement in his Reichstag speech
last Sunday on German and French
relations. No such pronouncement
was made. Mr. Price recalled that
Mussolini went to war because the
sudden collapse of France seemed to
be destroying his last chance of an
nexing Corsica, Nice and Tunis. He
miscalculated, for two years' fight
ing has brought the loss of the
Ethiopian Empire and many defeats,
and only one bit of French terri
tory, viz., Mentone, which is about
the size of London's Hyde Park.
Mr. Price suggests that part of M.
Laval's terms for collaboration with
Germany included a promise to Hitler
lo preserve French territory from
Mussolini's greed, hence the an
nouncement that Hitler will deal with
German and French relations. I
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