MUSSOLINI TODAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 October 1939, Page 6

MUSSOLINI TODAY

A CHANGED DICTATOR

HIS TWO PERSONALITIES.

THE GOOD EUROPEAN.

Those who knew the Duce years ago know that there were two Mussolinis—the Mussolini of the balcony and the Mussolini of a tete-a-tete, writes Theodor Wolff in the “Manchester Guardian.” On the balcony, amid the shouts and acclamations of an enthusiastic crowd. everything was magnified, gestures, voice, and bearing; everything was calculated for popular effect. The tribune’s pose, with arched breast, head thrown back, and the hard mask of a Roman, the thundered, imperious slogans, the biting irony with which his opponents were dealt with and dismissed before his excited audience—all this aimed at creating the impression of the forcefulness of a born ruler of men. His effectiveness was due partly to these rather theatrical devices, but also, of course, to the natural suggestive influence of a strong personality But when Mussolini had closed the door on to the balcony and sat facing a visitor, a stranger whom he was glad to meet, he could lay aside the dictator’s mien, much as a great tragedian, returning to his dressing-room when the play is over, throws off the hero’s armour and gets into a comfortable jacket. Even then, if some ticklish subject cropped up the marble bust of a Roman would reappear, but life would soon return to the marble and bring back the genial companion. A VISIT IN BERLIN. The Mussolini of the balcony has remained unaltered, unless, indeed, the rhetoric and the gestures have increased in violence. How is it that the intimate, charming Mussolini, who, however much one might disagree with him, was always an extraordinarily interesting man, has so radically changed?

He had an obvious tenderness for his journalistic past and liked to meet writers who interested or attracted him and to receive them as old comrades. I have been specially favoured, since I have not only been received but visited by him. His visit was in 1922, soon after the Genoa Conference and just, before the March on Rome. Mussolini was not then Du.ce and Capo del Governo, but was already famous as head of his party and already armed for the conquest of power. He came to see me while staying incognito in Berlin. He came with two companions, obviously secretaries; one of these, gloomy and with a rather striking head-dress, was plainly a despiser of the conventions of polite society. It irritated me a little to find that Mussolini would scarcely sit down at all; keeping on his feet, he fired question after question at me, much as a campaigning Napoleon might interrogate some foreigner about all sorts of things. He shot out his questions, a tense expression on his medallion-like face. He wanted information on economic and political conditions; I gave him such replies as I could, and the gloomy secretary noted them down. THE CARD OF ADMISSIONAt this first meeting Mussolini was too much like a man sitting for his portrait and carefully preserving a particular pose’ and expression. Nothing of this was left when I met him some years later, this time at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. The March on Rome was long past, a historic incident in an epic story, and the former editor of the “Popolo d’ltalia” was allpowerful, lord over Italy and- its Fascistically organised people. Count Orsimi, the Italian Ambassador in Berlin, had informed Mussolini, entirely of his own accord, that I was staying with my family in Naples, and the Duce paid us many attentions. When I made my call to express thanks for this hospitable treatment I was recommended by one of Mussolini’s private secretaries to call on the Duce, and I received the invitation which has to be shown in order to gain admittance to the Palazzo Venezia and to pass up the staircase and through the antechambers to the immensely long, bare room at the far end of which is the Dictator’s huge writing-table. I found a Mussolini whose • simple heartiness had not a trace left of the past theatrical manner, a Mussolini who talked with a friendly naturalness to his visitor; he seemed ready to discuss anything, and passed over differences in political ideas as something to be expected. “A REALLY UNITED ITALY.” As we sat at the famous desk he explained to me the essence of his mission. There had never before been a really united Italy; every part of the country, almost every city, had been out to live its own independent life. The rivalries and conflicts of interests were no longer, of course, the cause of unending internecine warfare as in the days of the Renaissance, but they had never been entirely overcome, and not until the Fascist regime was set up had it been possible to secure absolute Italian unity. 1 might imagine that his plan had been to attain this end by the use of the police, but this was an entirely mistaken idea. He had no higher opinion of police States than I might have, and real unity could only be attained by the creation of a national spirit. I ventured to mention the islands to which so many of his political opponents had been exiled and the prisons in which others were languishing. These and other objections would cloud his face and a storm would seem to be brewing, but this would last only a few seconds; then the stubborn expression passed away, his replies became genial and friendly again, and he gave figures and quoted decrees of his in evidence of the exaggerated nature of the stories given currency abroad NO DANGEROUS ADVENTURES Then, as recently, there, was tension between Italy and France. Mussolini discussed it coollj'’ and realistically, without rhetoric or Chauvinist extravagance. Nobody in Rome, he said, was occupying himself with plans of conquest except a few hotheads whose wild ideas had no influence whatever. From what he said it was clear that the Duce did not underrate France, that he had a clear realisation of the relative strength of the two Powers at the time, and that he had not the slightest intention of entering into any dangerous adventures.. He was also far from desiring that Italian Fascism should be associated with the National Socialist movement in Germany, which was then struggling to attain power, or with any other of the dictatorial movements. He dismissed racialism and anti-Semitism j with a contemptuous wave of the hand. What had the old Latin tradition to do with these things? The i impression he gave of being, in spite 1

of all his despotic theory of rule-and his nationalist mentality, a “European,” together with his mixture of strength, intelligence, and charm, made a conversation with him a pleasure even, for those who are not to be won over by the gentle arts of allurement. Moreover, in my case, at all events, he took with entire good nature any insistence on one’s own democratic conviction in opposition to Fascism ALOOF FROM OTHERS.

A little time before my visit to the Palazzo Venezia the dictatorial regime of the not particularly tyrannical Primo de Rivera had collapsed. Mussolini referred to tlais shipwreck of an alleged colleague in order to show how aloof Italian Fascism was from other dictatorships. If Fascism had felt any relationship to the Spanish regime it. would have been possible for anyone to claim Primo de Rivera’s fall as a defeat also for Fascism. Mussolini, made much of this point, and, if I am not mistaken, he first made use in this conversation of the phrase subsequently many times repeated, that Italian Fascism was not an article of export, but for home consumption only. It is certainly not easy to discover in the Mussolini of today any .traces of the other Mussolini who used to have these friendly and peaceful discussions of political problems and of the things of the mind with men of other views than his. Liberals and Democrats —of the Mussolini who still refused to persecute men on account, of their race and who united a dictator's forcefulness with the discriminating forethought of the statesman, the Mussolini who was not prepared to turn the proud ship of his fortunes into an escort for an alien vessel, but followed his own independent course, keeping Italian Fascism free from unItalian influences. Beyond question the change dates from the Abyssinian campaign and the Powers' mistaken sanctions policy. The Imperialist idea then attained full dominion in Italy, and the course then embarked on has been continued since.