Rome, Feb. 23.
While Ttaly continues' to "bustle with warlike activity in preparation, for hostilities with Abyssinia, Great Britain is actively pursuing her efforts to bring about a reconciliation between the two nations.
An important interview in this connection took place here to-day between Sir Erie Drummond, the British Ambassador, and Signor F. Suvich, Italian Under-Secretary. for Foreign Affairs, during which reference was made to the 1908 agreement between Britain, France and Italy to maintain the integrity of the Ethiopian Empire, Massawa, the capital of the Italian colony of Eritrea, is in the grip of intense excitement as preparations, fare being rushed for possible hostilities against the Ethiopians. Tt is understood that, in the case of a clash, Massawa will be Italy's stratesie centre.
Massawa is built on a sterile coral island in the Red Sea and is connected with the mainland by an embankment nearly a mile long—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.