p. Three | A New War in 1935

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California, U. S. A. · Sep 9, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 35.

A New War in 1935

(Continued from page 16)

both Italy and Germany will be strong comparatively; and they expect to make the most of their opportunity.

A British professor at the Williamstown Institute of Politics declared a few weeks ago that Europe is heading toward a new war in 1935, or at least somewhere between 1935 and 1940. We are told by that astute European observer, Frank Simonds, that this is common talk all over Europe to-day, and that several of the nations are actually looking forward to that period as a time of acute military crisis. Simonds sums up the reasons therefor as these:

It is thought that France will be the weakest in the years 1935 to 1940, and Italy and Germany may then try to assert what they consider their rights. Due to a low birth rate and to the ravages of the World War, the young men coming to military age in France in 1935 will be less than 100,000. This means France's reserves will be meager compared with both Germany's and Italy's. The year 1935 is also the year when all supervision over the Rhineland given France by the treaty makers at Versailles shall end, and many expect Germany then to assert herself in that region.

But Italy, not Germany, is the real danger facing France now. Mussolini and his government are exceedingly jealous of the power of France in southern and southeastern Europe.

Mussolini wants to be the commanding influence in that part of the Continent, and several other of his ambitious objectives depend upon his prestige there. Mussolini has repeatedly told Italy he is planning for an air force by 1935 that will darken the sky of the enemy's territory when it passes over, and that he wants a standing army of five million men by that year. It is an open secret that he will demand a greater place in the sun for Italy both in the Balkans and in colonial expansion around the southern shores of the Mediterranean when he feels he is strong enough on land, sea, and air to back up his demand with force.

It is likewise surmised that if Italy engages France in a war Germany may seize the opportunity to wrest from Poland, an ally of France, the detached portion of upper Silesia amputated from the German republic by the Polish corridor.

In other words, at the time when France is weakest in military strength, (Continued on page 8)