Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1937. ITALIAN SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 220, 17 August 1937, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1937. ITALIAN SELF-SUFFICIENCY

During a period when the external policy of Fascist Italy has gained more than ordinary prominence the domestic programme of the country has pursued its course according to schedule. Domestic, agricultural, and industrial life are integrated into the common destiny of the nation, and the success of any particular phase reflects favourably on the whole programme. The importance of the tremendous wheat yield of upwards of 295 million bushels, enabling Italy to dispense r with imported wheat, announced in the cables recently, can only be appreciated when the Fascist philosophy is adequately visualised. A shrewd commentator has remarked on the contrast between the Hitlerian and and Mussolini programmes —Hitler came into power with a very definite programme, and soon lost it; Mussolini, devoid of a plan, quickly invented one, based on the objective of corporate collaboration—apparently even ruthlessly enforced. “I am desperately Italian; I believe in the function of Latinity,” the Duce has declared, and he has infused undeniable vitality into rural life as much as in the political and industrial spheres. “I consider the corner-stone of all Governmental policies is a wise and strong financial policy,’.’ he has declared in his autobiography, and self-sufficiency in a country which has no great natural resources falls within the ambit of his activities. Private property and private profits are preserved, but under strict State control. The-entire productive capacity of the nation is, theoretically, represented by employers and employees and is organised into a series of twenty-two corporations, including cereals, credit and insurance, public utilities, building trades, and so on. From these corporations are chosen the Deputies to the Lower Chamber of Parliament, representation being on a basis of occupation instead of geography. Every corporation contains three supervising of the Fascist Party and is headed by a member of Cabinet or an under'secretary appointed by the Duce, thus establishing direct and constant contact between legislator and citizen. “Tlie State bejng supreme,” John Gunther has remarked, “regulates economy for its exclusive benefit.” As in Germany, where the crops are, on the contrary, even worse than last year, rigid economies ai-e being enforced in the utilisation of the harvest. The | grain from the Pontine Marshes,

the swampy tract along twentylive miles of -the coast, the conversion of which into arable land the Duce himself inaugurated, is to be utilised to the advantage of the nation in accordance with the self-sufficiency programme. Though the son of a blacksmith, Mussolini’s family has for generations tilled the soil, and the profound concern he experiences for the development of agriculture is perhaps understandable on psychological as well as economic grounds. Be that as it may, it is indisputable that Italy is enjoying a greater measure of independence in this sphere to-day than ever before, of which the news of the successful crops is a significant indication. Whether, on the other hand, the problem of continued deficiency of mineral wealth will be resolved under the aegis of foreign policy, or through the avenue of synthetic compounds evolved in the nation’s laboratories, continues to be one of the issues proving most tantalising at the moment for Italy.