Those who expected that the speeches of Der Fuehrer and N Duce, at the banquet in Rome on Saturday, would give some information regarding the negotiations which took place between the two last week and the decisions arrived at, will by' now have been greatly disappointed. Neither Il Duce no his guest said anything calculated to reveal what had been happening and political observers are "just as much in the dark' now as they were at the beginning of last week, All that took plate on Saturday amounted merely to a reaffirmation of the existing friendship between the two nations and insistence upon the strength of the Rome-Berlin axis. Short of the announcement of a military alliance it was unlikely that any epoch-making decisions would be reached, and for a number of reasons an alliance would have negatived much that Italy has done recently to bring about a better understanding with Great Britain and also with France. The formation of a German-Italian military bloc would have undone all that has already been achieved, and would e put the fruition of any appeasement policy back a very considerable time. The speeches on Saturday revealed absolutely nothing new, and consisted for the main part in the bestowal of mutual praise and a general lauding of the results secured by the two leaders in their respective countries. Nevertheless Der Fuehrer did seek to lay at rest any fears which might be entertained in Italy concerning the results of the Austrian anschluss and the fact that the German border now marches with that of his Italian hosts. The inference is permissible, though, perhaps, not very tenable that Herr Hitler will pursue the further development with due regard to the Italian position in the matter. That -wauld necessitate the abandonment of some portion of his general scheme at any rate for the time being, though any idea that Herr Hitler will permanently abandon any portion of his general scheme to bring Germanic peoples within the one Reich should be quickly forgotten.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.