Signor Benito Mussolini yesterday replied to the personal appeal from President Roosevelt received some time last week. It is learned that Il Duce does not commit himself in his reply.
The news that the Italian steamer Rex passed Gibraltar for Naples without being submitted to Contraband Control was regarded by certain circles as a sign of slackening in the tension in Anglo-Italian relations. The news, however, was not published in the newspapers. They have published a dispatch from Genoa declaring that the liner Roma was stopped for 30 hours at Gibraltar, and that tons of oil were confiscated, while British officers ripped open mattress ses, and even the lining of clothing of the crew. The dispatch does not mention that the control examination of the Roma occurred on May 6.
Articles last night dealt with Italy's vital interest in the Balkans. "Italian interests in the Balkan territories are not an improvisation,' "but represent part of the security and constructive desire which have always existed in the history of the Italian peninsula.
Reference to Germany's lack of petrol was made by Signor Ansaldo, the editor of Count Galeazzo Ciano's paper "Il Telegrafo" in a weekly broadcast to Italian troops. Signor Ansaldo added that despite this Germany had coal and cellulose in great quantity and with these two raw materials the nation could go forward.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.