Rome, Oct. 8 Premier Benito Mussolini. today began evacuating part of his Black-shirt' volunteers from Spain in order to obtain Great Britain's recognition of his Ethiopian conquest and ratification of the Anglo-Italian friendship pact.
Elated by this development, British sources point out that if there is no immediate hitch, the April agreement should enter into force early in November after Mr. Neville Cham-obtains Parliament's approval ist circles estimate that today's announcement will affect some 10,000 volunteers or approximately one-third of Italy's total forces in Spain. All volunteers who have served 18 months continuously in the 27-month-old war will be evacuated. British quarters. however, hope that Il Duce will recall more than 10,000 in order to facilitate the Prime Minister's task of pushing the accord through Parliament.
Diplomatic observers noted that today's communique cleverly described this partial withdrawal as "substantial" thus adopting the same term which Mr, Chamberlain several times employed as the yardstick for fulfilment of the Spanish clauses in the April accord, It is reported in reliable circles that Lord Perth, British Ambassador to Rome, will continue his efforts to persuade Il Duce to recall even more than 10,000. Observers believe that today's communique purposely refrained from mentioning the number of men involved in order to leave the way clear for repatriation of any number that Sig. Mussolini considers necessary in order to obtain the highly-desired Anglo-Italian pact.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.