Italy Still Weak, Salvemini States

Gaetano Salvemini, lecturer in History, declared yesterday that Italy did not enter the war last September only because her army was in a state of "utter destitution."

The Italian supplied had ben depleted during the wars in Ethiopia and Spain, and what remained were squandered in Albania, Salvemini said. Fear of a French attack forced Mussolini to abstain from fighting. The British blockade of Italian imports has made it exceedingly difficult for the army to recoup its materiel losses.

While the navy is capable of making "life uncomfortable" for the Allies in the Mediterranean, Italian participation would mean early French capture of such cities as Turin and Milan.

Until Hitler has organized Russian production and transportation sufficiently for Italy to benefit, there is little chance that Mussolini will decide to enter the conflict.

Salvemini discounted the possibility of a rupture between the Duce and Hitler as a result of an ideological clash after the Russo-German treaty; "Mussolini is never deterred by ideology," he said.

Emphasizing that the German-Italian treaty still survives, Salvemini added that a long war and the eventuality of a German victory may cause Mussolini to join Hitler in order to share in the spoils. "Mussolini remains benevolently neutral toward the German cause," he concluded.