BARK AND BITE-A CONTRAST

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12607, 18 November 1926, Page 6

BARK AND BITE-A CONTRAST

Mussolini, the Italian Dictator, knows the difference between bark and bite. He has bitten much, and Italy and the Italians know how much to a nicety, and they rather like it, so far as may be judged by outsiders. He has also barked considerably—always at things outside of Italy—and he has found barking profitable. As witness the two famous incidents of Corfu and Albania. Besides these and other examples, he has barked a good deal about the greatness of Old Rome, and his determination to follow the Old. Roman footsteps towards the glorification of his country. His latest bark on this theme reminded one somewhat of the operatic method, in which an impressive “recitative” precedes a grand “aria.” The subject of his "recitative” on this occasion was “a place in the sun” for Italy. It was delivered somewhat in the old Kaiser W.’s method of the rattling sabre. If he did not obtain a favourable answer anent some rather shadowy project, be would settle matters by helping hims.elf. He relied, if you please, on Italian patriotism and Italian valour. The political “quidnuncs” cocked their ears, and the news agencies and special correspondents got busy after their (now usual) insinuatory manner. It was a faint preparation for a possible, perhaps probable, European sensation. The barking Dictator took the hint at once. Some anti-Fascist demonstrations in France, of quite small sectional importance, gave him his opportunity. At these he barked like any great mastiff endowed with a power of roaring. Having roared, he controlled his voice to a conciliatory note, directed towards France in the manner of the dove. “I have never,” he said, in subdued accents, “contemplated a European policy without close Franco-Italian co-operation.” That is the report of this morning’s cable. Now, France is a Mediterranean Power. And France is not likely to co-operate in any policy which will allow Italy to play the masterly part which Rome once played in the Mediterranean regions. France has in recent years agreed to places in the African sun for Britain and Spain, stipulating for a corresponding “place” in the African sun for herself. Mussolini’s bark, therefore, resolves itself into a demand for the security of Italy’s position in Tripoli, against which no Power but Turkey objects. There is, therefore, nothing aggressive in this last bark of the Italian mastiff. There may be in it something defensive. But that is another story. It is a story of the future, which, however farseeing it may be, effectually prevents any present disquiet.