Wairarapa times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1940. MUSSOLINI’S ROLE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1940. MUSSOLINI’S ROLE.

TTSING terms of contempt that were well warranted, Lord Halifax, in his broadcast address reported yesterday, observed that to Mussolini, “flushed by triumphs over a France whom he has not fought, may be allowed the role of master of a Mediterranean which he has not conquered.” Whatever else may remain to be resolved in this war and its aftermath, theie can be no difficulty in. placing the posturing dictator of Italy where he belongs. There was a time when Mussolini gained and appeared to have earned some credit for steadying and consolidating the national life of Italy, although even at that stage of his career his methods were in some details infamous, as the memory of the murdered Matteotti and others bears witness. In the foreign policy he has developed with bombastic and brutal assertiveness, however, Mussolini has moved rapidly downhill and his culminating achievement to date, while he still prates of reviving the glories of Imperial Rome, has been to make his country a helpless hireling in the hands of Nazi Germany.

For the time being, with Nazi backing, Mussolini has overcome and reduced to quiescence those forces in Italy—amongst them the Royal house of Savoy and the Vatican — which had striven to keep the country at peace. The key to this measure of success on the part of the Duce appears to be his deluded belief that this is going to be a short war and one which the Nazis will win. Possibly that belief is already shaken. Certainly, as American and other observers well acquainted with Italy bear witness, it has never been entertained with confidence by any large section of the people whom Mussolini has meantime bent to his will. Interesting observations on this subject were made not long ago by Mr Vincent Sheehan, an American who in his own words has known and loved Italy for twenty years, in a broadcast address in the United States. Italy (Mr Sheehan declared) is at the present moment the most demoralised and anarchical country in Europe. I met nobody whatsoever of whatever rank in society who believed that this desperate plan of attack would succeed. What is more, I met nobody who believed that Italy would be better off if it did succeed. I am talking of all kinds of people, from fishermen to men of very high rank. Mussolini’s will alone has pulled this trick and it was the last despairing throw of a ruined gambler. He was ruined whether he came in or stayed out and he is playing everything he has on the chance of German victory in which he firmly believes. The great fact that German victory would be the end of Italian independence has been clear to all of his helpless subjects for a long time. It is apparently still not clear to him. There is no question, it may be hoped, of German victory and so much the more must the course into which she has been dragged by the distempered and disordered ambition of Mussolini be regarded as calamitous for Italy. Although the Duce has had his way for the time being, it is not in doubt that the bulk of the Italian people have been dragooned into the war against their will. On that account and because of her extreme dependence on imports of essential commodities now cut. off, Italy’s part in the war is likely to be troubled and inglorious. In whatever course the' war may take, a rude and rapid awakening - to what the alliance with Germany really means is in store for the Italian people. Many of them already are fully alive to the facts. An Italian soldier, for example, was quoted recently by an American correspondent as saying: “Five years ago I was told that the Germans on the Brenner Pass were a menace, and so I was sent up there. Now I’m told they are our friends, but we believe the first warning.”