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BACKGROUND OF THE LONDON CONFERENCE   339

war, however, the United States put up this principle of trading with both sides. In the coming war American imperialism however, will utilize this principle of freedom of the seas "of supplying food for the starving babies and women" as a means thru which American imperialism will try to mobilize the American masses for war. It will be one of the great hypocritical reasons which the capitalist class will play up big for the imperialist purposes of the United States.

FRANCO-ITALIAN IMPERIALIST DIFFERENCES

The struggle between French and Italian imperialism again brings to the forefront the Mediterranean question. At the first glance at the map one can clearly see the great strategic importance of the Mediterranean. At present the controversy and struggle for the control of the Mediterranean involves at least the following major imperialist powers: Britain, France and Italy. As far as Great Britain is concerned, we must recognize that the Mediterranean waste of the most important spheres of British influence. The control of the Mediterranean is of great importance to British Imperialism. Control of the Mediterranean means control of Egypt and Sudan, the security of the Suez Canal, and the guaranty of uninterrupted communication with India. Looking on the map we can see that the Mediterranean is the passageway of all British commerce, of the British navy from the mother country to its colonies, India, South Africa, Egypt and the great domain of Australia and New Zealand. For years, Great Britain continued to strengthen its naval bases in Gibraltar, which controls the entrance into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean and the great naval base, Malta, which can keep the security of the Suez Canal. To maintain its dominance of the Mediterranean, which also means the dominance and security of its colonial empire, Great Britain always insisted that its naval power in the Mediterranean is to exceed the naval power of France and Italy combined. Any attempt to challenge that right, any attempt to disturb this equilibrium, is met with growing resistance on the part of British imperialism, and today, thru its spokesman, the Labor Government.

Of no less importance is the Mediterranean to French imperialism. At the London Conference, imperialist France, boasted of the fact that France has a colonial empire, stretching over thousands of miles, with over one hundred million population. Looking at the map we can also see that the Mediterranean is not only washing the Souther coast of France, but is the passageway of all the commercial and naval traffic between France and its colonial empire, Africa, Indo-China, Madagaskar. To France the colonial empire means not only a source of raw material, not