AS ITALY DOES IT.

Evening Star, Issue 20134, 26 March 1929, Page 8

AS ITALY DOES IT.

Elections have no terrors for Signor Mussolini. His sleep will bo tranquil and undisturbed while Mr Baldwin wonders anxiously, in tho next few weeks, how much Labour may be expected to add to its strength and whether Liberalism can really “come again” at the looming British polls. Mr Baldwin has three parties to reckon with, and New Zealand has shown how a party which is supposed to he for all time disposed of, “too dead to bo called a corpse,” can rise up from tho dust, on occasion, for tho confounding of powers that be There is only one party in Italy, and tho electors do not choose—unless they aro very careless of their immediate future—they confirm. Industrial freedom was first biotted out There are no trade unions now in Italy. Workmen and peasants aro being enlisted in new syndicates which are official subdepartments of the Fascist State, and the employers’ organisations will bo in the same way bulwarks of Fascism. Then the liberties of all tho smaller municipalities—a great majority of the total number—were destroyed. The old elected mayors and councils in boroughs of a population of less than 5,000 wore made to give place to “ podcstas ” appointed by tho Fascist Government. Now, by the law which was passed last May, general politics have been confined to the politics of the same ruling party, and-the first elections —humorously so called —were held on Sunday.

There were no nominations in a popular sense. The directing committees of the federations of employers and employees and a few other lascist cultural associations first drew up a list of a thousand candidates. The Grand Fascist Council added its own names to those, and then reduced the list to the number required—4oo. Ibe “ elector ” was simply asked to say whether he accepted these or not. He did not pick and choose; he voted “ Yes ” or “ No ” for the entii'e list. And he was a bold man if he voted “ No.” A writer in a particularly impartial journal, the ‘ Round Table, foretold how the system would be administered. “ Peasants and workmen will be ordered, under threats, to vote ‘ Y r es.’ They will be marshalled by the Black Shirts and marched to, the polling stations. In the cities, there will be strong pressure, and it may well be that the vote will, on the face of it, be an impressive one.” It has been such. Eight and a-half million voted for the Fascist “ Parliament,” and only 136,000 against. Witness the popularity of Fascism! But the fact that 136,000 refused to be coerced in an election held under such influences may show that the spirit of the ancient republic is not yet wholly lead in Italy.

A merit lias been found in this new system which is apparently the result of a misapprehension. The candidates who are chosen by the industrial and cultural associations are not chosen by them as experts who might represent their special interests. That is specially forbidden by the law, which makes the sole consideration for nomination devotion to Fascism. The “corporative” State, in Italy, is a misnomer. There is only a Fascist State. Everything is subordinated to the needs of the ruling party, which is supposed to bo the sole embodiment of patriotism and virtue and progress. The regime may last for some time yet in a country' where there is no right of public meetings, no freedom of the Press, and where, it has been said, “ three persons talking politics together in a street may be taken up.’ Signor Mussolini has carried his degradation of elections further than has been done in any country, but one wonders why he did not go a step further yet. Why be bothered with the mere form of asking citizens to approve a Parliament that is selected for them, when the end could be attained as

easily by the Fascist Grand Council, which meets in secret, choosing the four hundred, and declaring them to be elected ? '