Berlin, Feb. 7—(AP)—Official quarters decline for the present to discuss the speech of Benito Mussolini, the Italian premier, the complete text of which has not yet reached Berlin. Undeniably, however, Mussolini’s words have caused general consternation, and it is hinted that no other statesman since the war has presumed to address a message of such a tone to another country with which it was on a foot of normal relations.
The address is considered a most untimely obstacle to calmer judgment respecting the mutual interests of Germany and Italy, to which the federal government has recently given much attention.
Though Mussolini’s threatening speech is considered unjustified, it is not denied that it was inspired by the speech of Premier Held before the Bavarian diet.
The new move to recall the Italian ambassador, Count Di Bosdari, is also interpreted as an expression of Italian distrust of Germany, on top of which Mussolini’s challenge across the Alps is viewed as an inauspicious omen for Germany’s entry into the league of nations.
The Lokal Anzeiger expresses surprise at Mussoiini’s tone, which, it asserts, is “neither comprehensible nor justifiable.”
The Taegliche Rundschau, touching on Germany’s impotency, remarks: “We cannot understand how forty million Italians can feel their existence threatened by a handful of South Tyroleans. But Germany is justified In asking Italy to allow those racially related to us to follow the dictates of their blood in their dally life and the bringing up of their children.”
In the Deutsche Allegemeine Zeitung, Hans Von Kemnich, Nationalist writer and a member of the reichstag, contradicts the Italian statement that Brenner Pass represents the strategic frontier and said “if the Italian government fails to revise its present South Tyrolean policy, it will be done by another Italian government in the future.”
Der Montag says “Mussolini’s present role is incompatible with the mandatory role entrusted to Italy at Locarno foreseeing the German-French security pact. Shall we, upon our entry into the league of nations, entrust the guardianship of our western boundary to this Italy?—Another reason for Germany carefully to consider the advisability of joining the league upon which the enforcement of the Locarno agreement is dependent.”
Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME, February 8, 1926