A Meeting of Dictators The stage appears to be well
set for a visit to Berlin by Signor Mussolini before the end of the present month. There is nothing surprising about that. The visit paid by Herr Hitler to the Duce at Venice in 1934 would naturally be returned in due course, and it could not be much longer delayed. It is not likely that more than an exchange of enthusi- astic courtesies, and a reaffirmation of the intimacy existing between Rome and Berlin, will result, though the situation in Spain and the Mediterranean is such that at any moment some event may occur which would give the meeting of the dictators unexpected significance. There are regions where the interests of Germany and Italy concur, and others, notably in Central Europe, where they do not, and while German Ministers are talking of the sacred rights of minorities the German-speaking minority in the Southern Tyrol is suffering at Italy's hands as harsh treatment as any minority in Europe— except perhaps the Jews in Germany itself. But awkward questions of that kind will naturally be kept in the background. The foreground is more likely to be occupied by new anti- Russian declarations, arising from Germany's disapproval of the Russo-Chinese non-aggression pact and Signor Mussolini's declared resolve to permit no Bolshevism in the Mediterranean area. In that event the meeting will hardly make for the improvement of the international atmosphere.
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