MUSSOLINI-THE MAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 692, 18 June 1929, Page 16

MUSSOLINI - THE MAN

DYNAMIC AND KEEN MR. A. MARKY’S VIEWS Impressions bf Benito Mussolini, Italy's dictator, were given by Mr. Alexander Marky, of the United States, to Auckland Rotarians. Mr. Marky interviewed Mussolini and extelled the dictator's personality. Mr. Marky referred to an address at Oxford, where cataclysmic personalities were explained. Mussolini was one of these. “No Anglo-Saxon can understand Mussolini’s motives and procedure—his effort to work his ideals into the Italian nation,” said Mr. Marky. “No English-speaking nation knows what he is doing to an exact degree. “When I visited Italy I had the ingrained hostility of the American and the Englishman to anything resembling brar.t? adaccio. I spoke against Fascism but I was compelled to acknowledge the force of Mussolini’s personality, to acknowledge his worth. I had heard that it was most difficult to reach Mussolini, but I arranged my interview with Armando Mussolini, II Duce’s brother. CHANGE IN ITALY

“Italy and Mussolini as I saw them —those of you who have been in Italy must remember that filth and the lack of appreciation of time were characteristics. There are none of these under Mussolini’s control. He has jolted the Datin temperament into action. Once, official services were slovenly. Now they are efficient. At one railwstation the massive, impassive profile of Mussolini was carved into the walls at every turn.

“I met intellectuals who were against Mussolini and Fascism, but they admitted that only Mussolini could complete Italy’s regeneration. In Parliament, I saw the dynamic force of Mussolini. Now there are no mounds of words. In three hours, not one speech was more than five minutes. Mussolini took one and a-half minutes. “Then, my interview. I was left alone with the man. The first thing that struck me was his lack of height. He was stockily built, and he struck me as the product of a smithy.

“His massive, angular features, and his forehead like a batteringram; his piercing eyes, and his vice-like mouth, impressed me. I had expected a poseur, but he was no stiff dictator, and had no artificiality. He was just dynamic, keen, and human.

“My interview was for seven minutes, but il Duce and I had so many things to discuss that the interview lasted half an hour.

“His laugh—overwhelming—was a robot’s. But it was genuine. I asked him: ‘What will happen when you have gone?’ He said: ‘I am not building a one-man administration; I am laying Italy's foundations for 50 or 100 years from now.’ His foundations are built of human material. But the building is masterly, and it may last.” Mr. Markey said he could not help “taking his hat off” to il Duce’s accomplishments and courage. Mussolini was one of the world’s outstanding men, and was certainly the foremost statesman.