THE STRONG MAN

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1930, Page 6

THE STRONG MAN

(Exchange.)

The other day a member of a, public deputation at Wellington expressed the wish that this country could find a Mussolini to manage its affairs. Talk of this sort is becoming almost a commonplace nowadays, even on this side of the world, and in Britain the tendency in this direction has been strongly marked of late. Perhaps the best -illustration of this drift in public or political sentiment at Home is provided by Lord Rothermere, who lias just pronounced a fervent panegryicoh Hitler as the saviour of a regenerated Germany. But Hitler is only the last name in a strong list of dictators and “Strong Men”—Mussolini in Italy, Rivera in Spain, Horthv in Hungary, Pilsudski in Poland—whom Lord Rothermere has eulogised in recent years, and all for the same reason, that they have l>cen courageous and masterful enough to seize and exercise autocratic and despotic power without any reference to the feelings or convictions of the peoples subjected to their sway.

Of course, we do not contend that everything which Lord Rothermere has ever said in bis numerous newspapers is to be taken quite literally and seriously. But his praise of Hitler and Mussolini, and all other typical “Strong Men.” indicates, as we have said, a significant and, as we think, a most dangerous tendency, characteristic of the whole drift of political feeling everywhere to-day. The general conception of national and international life, that appeals to Lord Rothermere, and his like, has been expressed in telling phrases by Mr A. G. Gardner ; “In his vision of the new and happier Europe there will be a score of supermen from Angora to London, each with his mailed fist directed against the rival supermen, and with his iron heel planted firmly on the neck of a whipped populace, who, at the word of command, will rise and do his bidding.” Of course, all this assumes not only that democratic methods and constitutional systems have failed in the past, but that they are not destined to succeed any better in the future, and that, in a word, their way is done. “Away with Parliaments! Away with the League of Nations! Down with the nonsense of - democracy and representative government.” These are slogans of the new political crusaders who have dedicated themselves to the cult oi “the IStrong Man” in recent years. It may be difficult to account entirely for these remarkably sudden and numerous conversions to the doctrines of absolutism. But in Lord Rothermere’s case, and quite conceivably in other cases as well, this-- new-formed enthusiasm for tyranny may be due, even unconsciously, to .the belief that the advocates of absolutism form the class from which the long-expected “Strong Man” is likely to emerge, when the hour of revolution strikes.

This is a point on which Mr Gardner has seized in .Jils criticism of “this Strong Man “ business,” and which he has worked with characteristic ,skill and effect. Why, he asks, should Lord Rothermere, or an' othei absolutist, assume that be personally will have anything to say in the final choice of the “Strong Man,” or the direction of his policy? If the “Strong Man” were a Mussolini or a Hitler, even a Sir Robert Horne, Lord Rothermere and his friends might rise on the crest of the wave. But what if the “Strong Man” were a ’Lenin or a [Stalin 1 What likelihood is there that those in high places who advocate absolutism now would be for r tunate enough to “ride the whirlwind and direct the storm” if the tempest of revolution once broke ? Mr Gardner lias remarked, with great acuteness. that, in all countries where constitutional methods have been tried, and where they are charged with failure. Bolshevism is far more likely 1 than Fascism to supersede democracy. And assuredly a Bolshevik hierarchy in Britain would be no more likely to tolerate opinions differing from its own than Mussolini in Italy or Lenin “in Russia. As for the rank and file of the masses, their lot under any form of despotism is always deplorable. But. the people who are always likely to fare worst under the “Strong' Man” regime are most of the people who profess to bo wishing and bop- 1 ing for it to-day.