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September, 1943                           No. 2


                  FRANCE FOREVER
                587 FIFTH AVENUE
                  NEW YORK, N.Y.

Reason and Justice Demand that France Have A Voice 
              in the Italian Problem

On September 9th, 1943, the French Committee of National Liberation issued a communique in which, while rejoicing at the unconditional surrender of Italy, it stated that France had vital interests in all the problems regarding the Italian question.

FRANCE FOREVER thought it time to give a short survey of these interests, together with an expose of the harm Fascist Italy caused France and of the part France played alongside its glorious allies in the defeat of Italy.

Permanent Interests
*In Europe, France among the allies, has with Italy the longer common border: 1,860 mi.

The generous French immigration policy allowed more than a million Italian nationals to settle in France. They constitute there important colonies whose fate will present a very delicate problem in case of any allied landing in the South of France, and should be settles by the proper authorities.

France and Italy have immense common interests in the Mediterranean, by their European and African coastlines. French Corsica and Italian Sardinia, close neighbors, are the two great bases in Occidental Mediterranean.

*In Africa the common interest between the two countries are as important and even more intricate. An immense border of more than 3,000 kms. separates the French territories of Tunisia, Algeria, the Niger and the Chad from Italian Libya. French Somaliland has a common border with Italian Eritrea.

The Italian population in French Tunisia, close to 100,000 forms a compact colony of Italian nationals almost as numerous as the French there. Several treaties and agreements between the Italians and the French have been worked out to deal with this difficult problem.

The occupation by Italian fascists of Abyssinia, where the French have built and are still owners of the only railroad linking that country to the sea, has created another situation which must be settled.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive survey. We can not enter here into the details of the permanent problem shared by these two countries.