COSTLY WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 122, 25 May 1936, Page 6

COSTLY WAR.

HOW ITALY HELD OUT. BY SANCTIONS. (By MARC. T. GREENE.) ROME, April. Two tilings stand out beyond all others among the impressions of the visitor to Italy to-day, the economic burden that the African adventure is laying upon the people, and the fortitude with which they are bearing that burden. The extent and effects of neither can possibly be understood except by seeing Italy under present conditions. Rijid censorship of Press dispatches and a policy of intimidation far worse than that in Germany prevent anything more than the vaguest of rumours from reaching the outside world. There is little doubt that the Italian people had no heart for the Abyssinian business at the start, and that, had they been able to pass upon it, they would have declared against it. But, whatever the merits of the sanctions move, that has been interpreted by all Italy as an attempt on the part of the rest of the world, and especially of England, to crush the Duce and to f destroy Italian Fascism. Propaganda to such effect ot tne most subtle and unscrupulous nature has strengthened that opinion and brought the people behind the dictator until there is little question of their determination to light the war out to a finish. "Martyr" Propaganda. That is not to say that doubts do not arise, but they are rarely voiced, hardly, even, admitted to the thought processes of their possessors. But the people have been told over and over that the world, and, again, especially Britain, would crowd Italy out of "her place in the sun," and they believe it. They are as certain of it as the Chinese student is that Japan, like Carthage of old, must be destroyed. Italy's position is that of a martyr, runs the propaganda in the carefully-censored Press, and Italy must, accordingly, exult because the. national role may be that of a Savonarola. Italian psychology of the moment is that of the leader. The people think as a unit, so far has the process of psychological regimentation gone, y.'lie very life blood of the nation is being sapped, as you cannot fail to observe before you have been in the country 48 hours, and your conviction is fortified by the assertions of Anglo-Saxons who have lived in Italy for years. The people have little idea how the affair is progressing, though victory after victory is reported to them in the Press. The ships continue to return with their thousands of sick and wounded, wives and daughters and sweethearts continue to be informed of the loss of their loved ones, more and more sacrifices are demanded, until the hesitant whisper, "How long?" is heard wherever the Italians dare voice their thoughts.

But you must admire their determination, and if you have liked them before —as who has not who knows Italy?—you like them no less to-day, even as you sympathise deeply. The point lias been reached where thousands niton thousands of them are simply struggling to subsist at all, but there is little or no complaint, merely stolid resignation. There are none of the smiling features, the liveliness, the spirited manners an<l the love of existence itself usually associated with the Italian temperament, to be noted today. Gloom lies heavily upon the country, gloom and uncertainty. "What is going to happen to us?" That is the unvoiced question in every Italian heart. And yet without audible complaint the people carry on. Recovery Will Take Years. A high Consular official in Rome told me that if the African war ended to-day Italy would lie years in recovering anything like economic stability. And the longer it goes on the longer will recovery be delayed, and in a kind of geometrical progression, too. That is to say, every additional month of the enormous expenditures necessary to keep up the war will add another two or three years to the burdenbearing of the next, and perhaps other, generations. That is the unanimous opinion of foreigners resident in Italy. All this the Duce realises as well as anybody, but he has gone too far to withdraw now except "with honour." There is little question tluvt the sanctions policy, however sound in principle, delayed and clumsily applied as it has been, has only served to drag the thing out and had little effect upon Italy except to lay a heavy burden upon the common people. But it has a more iniquitous effect even that that. It has laid another burden in varying degree upon the peasantry of most of Europe. During six months of travel through 14 countries, especially in the Balkans, I have not lacked evidences of that fact. Yugoslavia has been particularly hard hit, because Italy has been her chief customer for her two main exports, cereals and lumber. She has, therefore, pressed hard for something in the nature of compensation. Britain attempted to grant that by raising the import quota on Yugoslavian eggs, a move that had violent repercussions among English producers. That collective action has, beyond any manner of doubt, had the effect of hardening Italian opinion, of welding the nation together as perhaps not even the dictator's eloquence could have done, of hastening and extending the regimentation process, both physically and psychologically, until the people are solidly behind the Duce, though not more on the war issue itself than because the world seems to be against him. Feeling Toward British. There has been a great deal of injustice done the Italians in some sections of the foreign l'ress as to their attitude toward strangers, especially British. 1 have been in Italy for a month and have neither experienced myself nor heard of anyone else experiencing any discourtesy. At the outset gangs of hooligans here and there, especially in Rome, went out tearing down signs and occasionally, breaking a window. Absurd vapourings in the "Popolo d'ltalia," the paper edited by Arnoldo Mussolini, encouraged them, and certain decrees like that of changing the names of hotels, and especially of the Piazza di Spagna, the famous plaza of Keats and .Shelley, about which clusters most of.the British quarter of Rome. This was to be renamed the Piazza di Bono, but the childishness of such business has long since been realised, and the historic square is to retain its historic name. Also the name of the Hotel Eden, one of the tirst victims of youthful and excitable 'Fascist!, has been replaced, and so has every other English name in Home and Florence.

Nevertheless, the feeling is unmistakably there, and hundreds of British long resident in Ttaly have left. There have been 110 tourists this winter in Sicily or Naples or Capri or along the Italian Riviera, nnd there will be none this spring in Rome and Florence, 110 English, that is, and few Americans. The latter are exceedingly timid in respect of troubled conditions on the European Continent and cannot be induced to go to any place that figures in the daily Press dispatches as the scene of possible disturbance. The amount of money that Italy has lost through the disappence of tourist traffic alone can be measured in terms of millions, and it will be many a year before British visitors are again seen in their customary numbers. All in all, the Abyssinian adventure, however speedily pence may be made, will turn out to have been a very costly undertaking for Italy, with a very great deal of doubt attaching to the expectation of gaining- any real \alue in return.