LISTENINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 120, 10 October 1941, Page 15

LISTENINGS

Perpetrated and illustrated by

KEN

ALEXANDER

Italian Simmer

in the spaghetti belt, It is claimed that things look blacker than Musso’s shirt. Fascism, although not broken, has a bad attack of the bends. Disgust with war in general and Musso’s muddles in particular have stirred the Italians to essay a better stand against Italy and Germany than ever they did against Britain. Hitler says "Italy to-day is Germany’s business, Our a must give Italy all has it that all is not well That is whet Italy is afraid of, Taking refuge in the tiger’s mouth is not the Italian citizen’s idea of safety. German protection is worse than German aggression, When the Teuton drops in everything else drops out. Musso knows this but, having put all his ego im one basket, he can’t do anything about it when the Nazi gets down on the basket. Musso has had his brief moment. He made "hooey" while the

sun shone but didn’t have the savvy to open his umbrella when the weather broke. Consequently he got soaked.

Let us tear a page from his secret diary: "Woe’s me!--and also whoas! I joined Adolf for weal or woe, Now the wheel’s broken and the whoas have it. Adolf wants to protect me and I have no one to protect me against Adolf’s protection, Don’t know which way to turn. Adolf says that one good turn deserves another and mentions Greece, But I find that turning too often on an Axis only makes me dizzy and causes me to fall down on the job. Adolf asks for half a million of my footmen for the Russian front, But they are tired, Running through sand was heavy work and far too many didn’t run hard enough. Snow is even worse for facilitating a quick get-away. Adolf says I can’t get anywhere by sitting on the fence; but sitting on the fence is better than getting the gate. I wish that I had never listened to Adolf when he said: "We dictators must stand together." He never said a word about falling. I might have known that he only wanted me as a shock-absorber. "He says it’s time I took a pull, But his idea of a pull is me in the shafts while he cracks the whip. And my own blackshirts, who once put their shirts on me, now threaten to give me socks, ----I, who tried to get them a place. in the sun. How could I foresee that Hitler would put me in the shade."