FASCIST ITALY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 135, 9 June 1926, Page 12

FASCIST ITALY.

SURPLUS POPULATION,

A MEDITERRANEAN EMPIRE,

LONDON, April 24.

Dr. Andre Revesz. the foreign editor of the Madrid newspaper, "A.8.C.," wag accorded an interview some clays a»o by Signor Armando Mussolini, the brother of the Italian Prime Minister.

Signor Armando Mussolini, who j 9 the editor of the "Popolo d'ltalia" of Milan, is in close touch with his distinguished brother, with wliom he has a daily conversation by long-distance telephone, and whose views are reflected in the "Popolo d'ltalia," which, indeed, was under the formal editorship of the Prime Minister himself until last autumn.

In the course of the interview, Signor Armando Mussolini said: "We have reestablished discipline, the feeling of optimism, the love of work, the sense of security. The workers' standard of living has risen. Look at the increased consumption of white bread. Italy Glorious Again. "Also we have changed the mentality of the nation. Italy is to-day once' again what she was in her days of glory —proud of her past and confident in her future. Fascist Italy is youthful, optimistic, full of vitality, teeming with idealism. The new Italy has great things to accomplish and will take her place among the • Great Powers, the place that is her due, and to which she is entitled. The Fascist State is a strong national State, the foundations of which are discipline and hierarchy.

j "Forty-two million souls are living on this small and comparatively poor peninsula. Without work and discipline we would be very shortly face to face with famine. Since Fascism has been established there is a greatly increased productivity. This is why we are entitled to view the future with much more optimism. But, of course, we must expand. Within a few years it will be impossible for Italy to maintain all its citizens." Rome's Former Territory. "And where does Italy hope to send her surplus population?" the interviewer asked, "to Latin America?" "To Latin America, yes. But America is so far off and those who emigrate there are lost to Italy. There remains the Mediterranean basin, which really always belonged to Rome." "Tunis '!" lie was asked. "Perhaps, later. For the time being we do not wish to complicate matters. Tripoli is already ours, but Tripoli ig only a beginning. There remains, as I said, the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, there also remains the Turkish Empire of old, e.g., Albania, a comparatively rich country, possessing oil, while we are in great need of both oil and coal. Albania could be exploited and she has hardly one million inhabitants. Then there is Syria; France will never colonise Syria, for she has no exportable surplus population. Eyes on Smryna. Again, there is Smryna, which could be ours now, it was promised to us in 1916 at St. Jean de Maurienne, but we assigned our rights to the Greeks, who have lost it. There is Adalia, where we actually^landed, bufc~Nitti renounced our claims to it. We are indispensably in need of expansion. This is not Imperialism, and it is equally not a caprice; it is a 'demographic' factor. What are we to do with our surplus population ?

"I realise that we have arrived at the concert of the Great Powers somewhat too late when all the colonies were already divided. But this does not mean that the apportioning of colonies could not be revised. We must have colonies; we must have territories suitable for colonisation. I can only repeat what I have already told you; it is not a hobby of ours, neither a caprice nor even Imperialism. It is simply the instinct for survival."