Italian Paper Sees No Bias to England in Report of Mandates Commission

There is no question of hostility to Great Britain or any unnecessary interference of the League of Nations in the affairs of others in the Mandates Commission’s report, Il Giornale d’Italia finds. This influential paper, the first of the Italian press to comment on the report, sees the Mandates Commission’s work as a form of international collaboration based on the peace treaty and hence to be regarded as “legitimate and necessary and free from any intention of giving offense to anybody.”

The Italian paper professes to see in the British government’s reply and in the comment published in the London Times, as well as in the attitude of “disdainful surprise,” somewhat of an inconsistency with the importance of the problem and with the traditon of realism in judging contingencies even of an adverse kind.

After referring to the special situation in Palestine, the Giornale d’Italia recalls the responsibilities assumed by Great Britain and the criticism of the British administration made in England itself, notably in the letter published in the London Times under the joint names of General Jan Christian Smuts, Lloyd George and the late Lord Balfour.

SEES LITTLE DIFFERENCE FROM SHAW REPORT

The Italian paper is of the opinion that the report of the Mandates Commission differs little from that of the Shaw Commission except as regards the obligation of the British government to have foreseen and provided for the conflict of last August. Such a slight diversion between the two reports cannot account for the British resentment which is provoked by the possibility of “the eventual reform of the Mandate which might by reason of reason of the serious elements which emerged, and of the slow ripening of vast repercussions, especially in the Islamic East will sooner or later impose itself upon the attention of Europe,” the editorial concludes.