WORLD AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 258, 31 October 1929, Page 6

WORLD AFFAIRS.

A WEEKLY REVIEW,

(By BYSTANDER.)

France has just experienced another of it periodic political crises. The Socialists wen annoyed with M. Briand because he had not con suited the Chamber of Deputies about his foreigi policy, and they decided to teach him a lesson 6 In France, with ten or twelve relatively smal a parties manoeuvring round each other, niajoritie* are gained or lost with startling rapidity, anc y Ministers rise or fall like meteors. Briand himsel: 0 has acquired remarkable dexterity in controlling tr such a precarious situation. He has elevated t( an art the difficult task of "governing witl shifting majorities," making concessions to Lef" or Right in turn, forming "blocs" at lieadlonj e speed as he goes upon his appointed course, anc "picking his way through the maze with the _ instinct of an infallible scent." A defeat more 01 3 less will matter little to him. This is, as Mr f A. G. Gardiner puts it, "the tradition of Frencli - politics, whether a man does well or ill. His i, eminence is his doom. If lie rides boldly he is unhorsed as a despot, and if he rides feebly he is Y unhorsed because he does not ride boldly." In 1 any case, M. Briand will soon be in the saddle 3 again. Even if he is not, as the "Daily Herald' said recently, "the foremost European of our time," he is indispensable to France and its Government, and though at first he refused a seat in the new Daladier (Radical-Socialist) Cabinet, 1 he has now accepted the office of Foreign Minister 2 once more. And this is well for Europe; for p. whatever may be Briand's faults or defects, it is certain that the great aim of his life is to ensure J ° „ the world's peace. 5 Storms in a Teacup. t Ten days ago shots were fired and stones were 1 thrown at the Italian Embassy in Brussels. Apparently this outrage represented an outburst of popular resentment at the recent execution of a Yugoslav anti-Fascist, Gortan, in Italy, an . incident that had already produced serious rioting [ at Belgrade. But it was also indicated at the time ( that the demonstration was intended to be in part a protest against the rumoured betrothal of . the Italian Crown Prince* to a Belgian princess, - the only daughter of King Albert. This was i probably the true explanation, as the visit of » Prince Humbert during the past week very nearly ' ended in tragedy. A shot was fired at him during ' a public reception, and his assailant, Dirosa, since identified as an anti-Fascist, is said to have \ admitted that he meant to kill the Crown Prince or his father, King Victor Emmanuel 111., or Mussolini. Dirosa's grievance against his intended victims is that they have "betrayed the Italian Constitution." But it is also alleged that he was a friend of Matteotti, and that he is a member of ' a band sworn not to allow that victim of Fascist tyranny to remain unavenged. However this may be, the Crown Prince displayed exemplary courage and presence of mind, the betrothal was duly arranged, and Princess Marie and Prince Humbert are to be married "within forty days" in accordance with the immemorial tradition of the House of Savoy. The Man Behind the Throne. But though Prince Humbert has escaped the death at an assassin's hand that befell his grandfather, King Humbert, nearly thirty years ago, storm-clouds still lie heavily across his path. For Victor Emmanuel 111. is weary of the task of maintaining the formalities of monarchical life while the reality of power is in other hands, and he has several times threatened to follow a precedent well established in the history of the House of Savoy and abdicate. In fact, Prince Humbert might at any time be called upon to occupy the throne, and speculation is already active as to the line of policy lie would then adopt toward Mussolini. For Humbert, like his father and all his ancestors, has a strong prejudice in favour of Freedom, and Fascism has long since proved itself incompatible with any form of constitutional government. "Fascism," in Mussolini's own words, "has already trodden, and! if necessary will calmly tread again, on the more! or less decaying corpse of the Goddess of Liberty." At the recent ceremony on the seventh anniversary of the Fascist march on Rome, Mussolini declaimed in characteristically theatrical fashion against "this vile perfidious vociferation" of a few rebels and traitors. But anyone who knows how Italy has been governed for the past five years, anyone who has learned what there is to learn about the fate of Matteotti and Amendola, who has read Salvemini's disclosures in the British Press, or has even read Francesco Nitti's account of his escape from Lipari under the title "Hell in Italy," in the last number of the "Review of Reviews," must refuso to take Fascism at Mussolini's valuation. One single fact is enough for the moment; the imprisonment of Nitti and his friends was carried out not by arrest and trial, but "by administrative order"—the course adopted by the Czars for despatching revolutionaries to Siberia. The analogy is perfect, and there is in method and principle little to choose between the Russian autocracy and the tyranny which dominates Italy to-day. Diplomats Prefer Blondes. Just at present Mussolini has many difficulties to contend with, and he eccms to have been particularly exasperated by the news that the secret code of the Italian Embassy at Berlin has been stolen. He has dismissed or transferred most of the Embassy staff, but the situation is not improved by the knowledge that, according to Bessedowsky, a Russian writer who is just now making good use of the Parisian Press, tiie Soviet Government arranged the theft and secured the spoil. Rumour has already built up a romantic story around this diplomatic scandal, and a, prominent part in the tragi-comedy is played bv a certain "fascinating blonde" who is credited with c having lured several guileless diplomats to their doom. Ono wonders if this "bloijde society beauty" also had a hand in the "loss" of the British-India secret service code which was "found" by the- Bolsheviks. Here surely is a page that Anita Loos must have omitted accidentally from her delectable story. That Scrap of Paper. As I have mentioned Bessedowsky, I may as well refer to one of the most recent revelations : that he has given to the world, through the "Daily ! Telegraph." He professes to know the truth about the famous Zinovieff letter which played so lar<>e ■ a part in unseating the Labour Government five years ago. He says that the signature was ' genuine, but that neither Dzerjinsky nor Zinovieff would admit that the letter had been signed without an examination of its contents. °The Ogpu, a secret police tribunal, condemned three clerks of the Third International to death as scapegoats. One of them was the girl who had presented the letter to Zinovieff for signature, but he made no effort to save her, and she was duly executed. Zinovieff, however, when under examination, testified that the letter conformed closely to the usual line of policy dictated by the Third International in its unremitting attempt to stir up revolution in Britain; so that to all intents and purposes the letter was precisely what it ! purported to be. But, of course, the important question is, and always lias been, was this letter an official attempt on the part of the Soviet rulers ' and the Third International combined to propagate Bolshevism of an incendiary kind ill Britain; and about this there is, and has been, "no possible doubt whatever."