Italy and Geneva The only importance attaching to Italy's withdrawal
from the League of Nations lies in the motives that may have prompted it. To the League itself her defection is no loss. She has attended none of its meetings for eighteen months, and for nine months before that she was an unashamed violator of the Covenant she had signed. The announcement last Saturday was an obvious anti-climax, for all Signor Mussolini's whirling words. But why was it made in this flamboyant form ? Largely no doubt because the methods Signor Mussolini pursues require that the people shall be keyed up periodically to a degree of ebullience sufficient to distract their attention from various uncongenial facts. Abyssinia shows no sign of becoming anything but a liability to Italy ; the Spanish adventure is costing lives and money and leading nowhere ; it was announced on Wednesday that Italy's adverse trade balance, which was L32,000p00 for the whole of 1936, is £42,000,000 for the first nine months of 1937. Small wonder that Signor Mussolini should desire to cement his association with any allies available, and it was no doubt calculated, perhaps rightly, that it would gratify Germany and Japan for Italy to follow them out of the League. Herr Hitler's declaration against any return to Geneva is more regrettable. But the Fiihrer has never hesitated to revise his declarations in the past, and it is certain that his decision on this and other questions will be dictated simply by what he considers to be to Germany's interest at a given moment.
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