MUSSOLINI SPEAKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1941, Page 6

MUSSOLINI SPEAKS

ADMISSIONS & EXCUSES SAYS AXIS WILL WIN IN END HATE OF ENGLAND ENJOINED. TALK OF SEPARATE PEACE IDIOTIC. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrights (Received This Day. 12.15 p.m.) ROME, February 23. Mussolini, addressing a Fascist rally, said Italy must fight to the last drop of blood against England. He admitted that one-tenth of the Italian Army had been destroyed and also one-fifth of the Air Force. “I come to look you firmly in the eye and break my silence." he declared. “saying we must fight to the last. We would have entered the war in September. 1939. if we had been prepared. but after fighting Ethiopia wo received an appeal from Spain which we could not deny. We would have preferred that the war should have been delayed to let us build up material. but history takes one by the throat and forces a decision. It is our fate that we have had the most difficult fronts on all the seas and in the African desert. The British attack in Africa preceded one we had planned for five or ten days later. The British thus reached Benghazi. The British claim to have lost only two thousand in Libya is a lie. They must have lost 20,000. “These months." he added “exasperate our will and must intensify our hate for the enemy, which is indispensable to victory. We shall probably have to fight for a long time, but the Axis will win. Britain cannot. Italy and Germany will march shoulder to shoulder to the end. Italy has an army of two million and >f necessary of four million. American aid for Britain cannot compensate all the losses inflicted by the Luftwaffe. Britain will soon be, aware of Italian-German co-operation J in the Mediterranean. New successes will come to us at all four cardinal i points. African territory will be retaken without difficulty when we want it. There are days of fierce fighting ahead on all battlefronts. Talk of a separate peace, is idiotic. The war will end when Britain is defeated, unless the Dominions wish to continue at the risk of losing their independence. Neither Italy nor Germany intends to attack the United States.” It was ridiculous, Mussolini'declared.! to expect a further weakening of Italy, , “This can never occur," he said. "The! real Italian fighters and workers must' not be misled by a few anti-social per-1 sons complaining about rations. The; United States has formidable indus-; tries, but her aid must reach England, and also surpass Germany's produc-j tion. This is impossible. The British, armies must invade the Continent in' order to conquer the Axis. No Briton' would ever dream of such a step.” i Mussolini went to great lengths to,' prove that careful preparation was! made for the war in Libya "which wej have always considered most import- ! i ant strategically." lie said that over] 14,000 officers and 356 000 men werej sent to Libya, equipped with 1.900 j 1 guns of all calibres and of the most\ 5 recent types. 15,300 machine-guns, ele-i| ven million artillery shells, a billion i ( rounds of ammunition for automatic! weapons, 24,000 tons of clothing and<\ 759 armoured ears.