“LITTLE BENITO”

Evening Star, Issue 23683, 17 September 1940, Page 9

“LITTLE BENITO”

G&DKY WAITED IN LONDON [l’liO.M Oca COUaESPO.VDEXTj August 8. X Loudon daily assorts that, until he came to a Downing Street conference after the last war, Mussolini was .never m London. This is inaccurate. The Duco spent some time here in his younger days, and was engaged as a waiter in a Soho restaurant. It was a place sometimes visited by King .Edward VII., and it is a piquant probability that Mussolini may actually have waited on that great monarch. There are at least a few people with clear recollections of “little Benito.” They recall him in those days as a cocky little Italian, fond of throwing his chest out, and with distinct tendencies to tub-thump-ing. It was soon after the Armistice that Mussolini-returned to London. He aroused much popular,interest, and was fond of walking our crowded streets. It was on this occasion the late Mr Bonar Law, then a prominent member of the L.G. Coalition Cabinet, first met the -Fascist chief. Asked afterwards what'his impressions were, Mr Bonar Law remarked that ho could not quite make up his mind whether Mussolini was a real statesman or merely a theatrical mountebank. But wo must remember that two more antipathetic personalities probably never encountered each other.