It is satisfactory that the Earl of Perth has been able to enter into preliminary discussion with Count Ciano on the trend of Anglo-Italian relations, Since the interchange of the famous letters between the two Prime Ministers considerable anxiety has developed, although the fundamental soundness of the long-standing friendship between the two countries has been a salutary check to pessimism. It is to be hoped that Rome will not seriously bank on differences of opinion which some critics on the Continent have imagined that they could detect between Mr. Neville Chamberlain and Mr. Anthony Eden. The, recent tribute paid—almost gratuitously it might be said in the circumstances—by Mr. Chamberlain to his Foreign Secrejary was a significant sign of the solidarity of the two men's outlook. It may be doubted indeed hether at any time Mr, Eden's stock has stood so high in the national esteem. This does not
sible task. "The proposal that Mr. Eden should imply a belief that Lord Perth has an impos-confer with Count Ciano may eventually be found to be a practical manner of removing personal misunderstandings if any still exist, although no such meeting is immediately in prospect. Sometimes it seems as if Rome's anxiety regarding Mr. Eden's attitude were due to an unhappy recollection for which Mr. Eden, as Italians will admit, was not to blame. It should not give the Italian Government a minute's loss of sleep. To begin with, Mr. Eden is in many ways a typical Englishman and the last thing he is likely to do is to ignore the practical value of letting sleeping dogs lie. That may be a crude way of saying that he bears no malice. It is none the less pertinent for all that.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.