The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1925. A NEW MENACE TO PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 232, 1 October 1925, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1925. A NEW MENACE TO PEACE.

For the cause that lacks assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, . And the good that we can do.

It is impossible at present to say how far the world at large should be prepared to take literally the revelations concerning Muesolini which the "Daily News" is now submitting to its readers. But while detailed e\-idence in support of these allegations may not yet be available, there is nothing intrinsically improbable in Mr. Redwood's statements, and there are a good many wellestablished facts which appear to render his version of the Mussolini legend conceivable if not credible. The most interesting feature of these alleged disclosures is the definite charge that Mussolini has been endeavouring to arrange an alliance between Italy and Soviet Russia, and has striven to include Germany in this unholy pact. The suggestion that the Fascisti first came to the front as the sworn enemies of Communism -in Italy in no way meets the case. For there is no essential difference in principle between the dictatorship set up by Lenin and Trotsky at Moscow and the irresponsible despotism established by Mussolini at Rome. Mussolini is, in theory and in fact, an autocrat pure and simple, and when once the necessity for despotism is admitted there is no reason why two tyrants should not fraternise and make use of each other for their own individual ends. Once grant that Fascism is, as-the evidence incontestably'proves, unadulterated tyranny, and we have no rational excuse left for refusing to believe that Mussolini, to gain his own ends, might well be disposed to join hands with the Bolsheviks, and even- to precipitate a new world war.

This last suggestion may seem to some mind 3 too monstrous to entertain seriously. But if, as seems probable, Mussolini believes that the great obstacle to the accomplishment of his ambitions is to be found in the attachment of such countries aa France and Britain to the traditions of constitutional government and political freedom, there is no reason to believe that he would hesitate to adopt <such a programme as Mr. Redwood has outlined. For the man is unquestionably a megalomaniac, whether the term is used in the metaphorical or the pathological sense; and the most characteristic episodeß of his career bear the imprint of a disordered though powerful mind. Mussolini's scornful abrogation of the political rights of all parties but his own, his openly expressed contempt for all law and justice but those of his own making, and his unconcealed reliance j upon force as the supreme arbiter : between himself and his opponents—all these things suggest an abnormal attitude toward life in all its most important relations. It may be added that the carefully prepared stage'effects by which Mussolini endeavours to impress his imaginative and emotional countrymen, his grandiose declamations, hie melodramatic posturings, the absurd parody of Roman Imperialism in the public spectacles in which the Fascist! .seem to revel, all po int i n the same direction. And if we allow for the worktoga of an insatiable ambition upon a mmd obviously ill-balanced and disorderly, and, whether through temperamental or pathological causes, largely released from the normal restraints of moral responsibility and self-control, we need not be surprised at the ominous and tragic tone of Mr. Redwood's reflections on Fascism. Mussolini so far has been content to play the tyrant for hi s , own people; but it is not inconceivable that he may yet prove a dangerous menace not only to the rights and liberties of the Italian nation, but to the peace and safety of Europe and of the world. .