If, as it is reported, German attempts to secure a common front between Germany, Italy, and Russia have failed it is a most satisfactory piece of news. The chief obstacle appears to be the question of Soviet guarantees for Rumania and Turkey, as the basis of a rapprochement between Rome and Moscow, for the latter seems reluctant to abandon her designs in the Balkans even if only temporarily. The Nazi press which was resounding last week with slogans concerning the establishment of a "new Europe" are now leaving the subject severely alone, and it is apparent that Italian coldness to the German scheme is in the main responsible for the breakdown of the negotiations. It is quite easy to understand why the Italians should not be enthusiastic over any such plan, There can be no rapprochement between the ideologies which animate the Italian and the Russian governments, for Signor Mussolini is just as much opposed to Bolshevism as ever he was. The fact that Naziism has shown itself to be assuming somewhat of the same complexion as that of Moscow suggests also that if the link between Germany and Italy is not yet weakened, the prospects of that happening in the future are not to be disregarded. The reports that both Germany and Italy are fortifying the Brenner Pass suggest that those two nations are not now the happy family they were so often claimed to be by the Nazi propaganda machine, for no matter what Herr Hitler make think about it there cannot be the slightest doubt that Signor Mussolini has learned the lesson of recent months, and the complete rashness of relying upon any commitment which Herr Hitler may have entered into with him: It is impossible for the ordinary observer to escape the conclusion that the only policy common to all three countries is that of each for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Quite obviously the German-Russian understanding can only last as long as both of the parties see some profit to themselves, and it will be broken directly one o the other sees an advantage in doing so. For Italy to enter into such an unreliable partnership, especially when her present understanding with Germany is so unpopular with the masses, would be most unwise, while the task of educating the people, already indoctrinated in the sacredness of the anti-Comintern alliance, in the benefits of Communism would be a task from which even so vigorous a Dictator Signor Mussolini might very well shrink, The failure of these negotiations will have the result of maintaining conditions in the Balkans in their present state of instability, though the intention of Italy and Hungary to maintain peace in south-eastern Europe may still be the deciding factor in a situation which is not without its difficulties,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.