The Daily News FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1928. MUSSOLINI’S AMBITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1928, Page 6

The Daily News FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1928. MUSSOLINI’S AMBITION.

Whatever may be the outcome of Signor Mussolini’s conversations with the foreign diplomats who are stated to be flocking to Rome, indications point to the Italian dictator as pursuing a policy designed to raise him to a pinnacle of fame. Apparently his ambition is unbounded, while there can be no doubt that his determination is sufficiently intense to be an important factor in bending others to his will. All the same, it is inevitable that, sooner or later, he will, like the great Napoleon, overstep the mark, though it is to be hoped his machinations will be set at nought before he involves some of the nations in hostilities. He has seen to it that freedom of speech in Italy was repressed with a firm hand, but much to his annoyance he finds that it exists in other countries, and he is sb constituted as to regard this fact as a personal reflection upon himself. Whether he proposes to sound visiting diplomats as to following his lead in this matter need not be. conjectured. It is quite conceivable that he hopes to solve the Tangier-Tunis problem, but all his schemes to supplant France as the dominant factor in Tangier are doomed to failure. His overbearing methods led to a quarrel with Herr Held and Herr Stresemann when, in turn they deplored the denationalisation of the German element in Italian Tyrol. He quarrelled with M. Vandervelde when he eulogised

the murdered Matteotti, and more recently he became . intolerably angry with Monsignor Seipel for allowing the plight of the Tyroleans in Italy to be denounced in public by Austrian politicians. Since Fascism secured power, the Germans in the Tyrol have not only been compelled to endure those blessings of dictatorship which are endured by Italians generally, but also to submit to a steady policy of oppression, with denationalisation as its end, such as falls to the lot of few other national minorities in Europe. Their sufferings could not but win the sympathy of the German people, and that sympathy found expression, with undiplomatic forcibleness in the local Parliament of the Austrian Tyrol. Thereupon Signor Mussolini instructed his representative at Vienna to protest to the Austrian Chancellor against interference with “Italian domestic affairs.” It so happens that the actual facts are not in dispute, but the Italian dictator takes the stand that the facts arc nobody’s business but Italy’s. It must be remembered, however, that Italy, at the Peace Conference was considered one of.the Great Powers, and that she joined the other Great Powers in imposing on smaller Powers the legal obligation, safeguarded by the League Covenant, to respect the rights of minorities in their newly-acquir-ed territories, but no such restriction was placed on the Great Powers, it being considered that their obligation of honour was sufficient. That being the case, there is no legal ground for an appeal to the League against Italy’s oppression in the Tyrol. There doubtless exists a .moral right of appeal •on the ground that oppression anywhere is a blow against humanity as a whole, but Mussolini denies any such right, even when supported by precedents. The tendency to stretch the legal issue at the expense of the moral is characteristic of post-war diplomacy. In refusing to acknowledge the rights of minorities and the evident intention of the obligations imposed on the smaller States, Mussolini ■strikes a blow at the. whole system established after the war for the protection of minorities, and in so doing calls the attention of the League to the necessity of making the obligation universal. That some solution of this problem must be found is plainly, evident, otherwise there is a danger to European peace that may increase alarmingly. The action of Signor Mussolini in this matter throws light upon the trend of his ambitions in the direction of being a law unto himself-—a modern Caesar. There is no escaping the fact that Italy is one of the guardians of the system of protection at present in force. The question naturally arises: How can she discharge such guardianship when she will neither protect her own minorities, nor even allow others to call attention to the fact that they need protection? There appears’ to be a strong case for the League to intervene. Meanwhile the Italian dictator appear to be endeavouring to make friends with oher nations in order to strengthen his position, but surely they must discern the danger signals ahead.