HALTED BY RAIN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 411, 21 December 1932, Page 6

HALTED BY RAIN

fascist celebration '{ M US S OLINI'S ADDRESS TO MOYEMENT LEADERS - INTERRUPTED. IMPOSING CEREMONY. Prdmier Mussolini's much -heralded speech to a meeting of 25,000 Fascist j l.-aders massed in the Piazza was ? halted by a heavy rain. Inaugurating the1 celebration of the tenth anniver- | sary of the march on Rome, the Pre- J mier had hardly got as far as the ; statement that ' Fascism intends1 to continue its present policy of "absolute intransigeance" and to intensify the "Fascistisation" of Italy when the proceedings were cut short. Fascist Senators and Deppties, standing bareheaded to hear the Premiers word, were the first to scamper for shelter. A few minutes later, bignoi} Mussolini, seeing it would be iinpossible to continue, interrupted his ! address. The sun re-appeared as soon as the s.quare had been emptiad, writes Arnaldo Cortesi in the New York Times. The ceremony until the downpour was imposing ancl colourful. Blackshirted Fascist chiefs paraded in miliinry fornration through the main thoroughfares, converg'ing on the Piazza Venezia from three directions. They brought 20,000 banners from all Fascist sections of Italy. The immense square was soon filled by a solid mass of black shirts over whose heads the brightly-coloured banners fluttered in the slight breeze. Many groups sang Fascists songs. Mussolini's appearance in a black shirt, surrounded by his uniformed siaff, on a raised dais built at one eml of the piazza, aroused a noisy ovation. Shouts of "II Duee" ro-e from the assembled blackshirts. Banners waved in greeting formed a tumultous sea of colour. Birth of Revolution. When the Prcmiei? appeared the sun hid behind dark clouds which had b en rapidly gathering. Rain was , lulimg as Mussolii.i bogan speaking j and it inereaf-ed in intensity till ten j ndnutes later he was obiiged to with- j (h'aw wliile his thoroughly drenched j Itdlowers left the piazza. Mussolini r 'called the birth of the Fascist "insurreclion" ten years ago. i e applled this term for the first timo to the march on Rome, sayiug the re- . olution bogan later when Fascism r.'oceedod to revolutionise Itul'an ihe. i he Fascist in-urreclion. he said, "was r.ie of the bloodiest in history, those v.ho sacrificed their lives for the triL.:nph of Fascism far exceeding the ! vv dozens killed in the taking of the Lrstille or during the almost pacific i.ussian revolution." "Our martyrs showed absolute intransigeance," he continued. "We must be inflexible wi.h ourselves faith1 il to our creed, our doetrine and our cath, not making eoncessions eithei* to the past or to catastrophic for ■casts >' >v the future. The record of Fascist achievement vas tremendous, continued Mussolini, hrt he said lie prei'erred to ihir.k of the future. "I ara your chief and ara always ivady to shoulder the entire responbility," he said. Referring to the world deprovsinn, he said it could not be cured by mi-'a culous remedies. "Either it is a cycl'oal crisis within our system, in which ca-e it will be solved," he asserted, "oi* it is a crisis of the sysem, in which case w» are facoii by t it; transition from one epoch t f civii' nation to another. Wherever State caj.'italism is attompted, misery and . .ui'ering are tremendou "Fpscism must direct attention tspeeially to the young generation, makiiig them worthy followcrs of the Fase'st tradition. For this puroose it is uecessary to 'Fascistise the dead corrers ef life' to prcpare the young for future tasks." Lor.g Leadership. Mussolini recalled that the Milan i leeticg had been called by him and that there the insurrection was plrnr.ed. His speech was called the first public "grand report" of Fascism, j reliminary to the tenth amuversary ( l the Fascist victory 011 Octoher 28. He asserted he had 110 desire "to I e called an apostle, much less a proiliet." "That image can be ovcked only i efore pompous men with deep voices and long beards," he said, referring in Socialist opponents of the Fascist regime. When calling upon tlie Fascisti to oiscard the pa-t, he said that "the second deead e of Fascism must make large place for the youth that take ihe torch to carry on the vork of heir predecessors." Pointing lo the monument lo the unknown soldier, he uescrihed it as "a s;> rnbol of unlted '"'asci.-m, ready for every test." Asscrting that Fascism had rcaclied a crisis, Siguor Mussolini said "those .vho think they can solve this crisis esvitli miraculous remedies are oif the road." I'raising Napoleon as a liero, the dremier rcmarked that the famous 'Jorsican "never learned to speak Freneh eorrectiy." He recalled that Napoleon's mother died in the palace acing *he piazza and said all Italians •..iiould be grateful to her. Behind Mussolini, on a platform be•'ore his palace, were General Italo Balbo, Minister of Aviation; General tmilio De Bono, Golonial Minister, and Cesare Maria De Vecchi, Ambassador to the Vatican. Other Cabinet nembers were grouped near the platform. The Fascist Senators, 400 Deputies, comprising the whole Chamber, r edesal directors and political secretaries, ommanders of the young Fascists and ecretaries of University groups were present at the meeting, the first in vvhich these upper ranks had ever met simultaneousdy in Rome. With them were representatives of disabled war veterans and families of war dead.