The Dominion FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1926. THE ATTACK ON MUSSOLINI

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 165, 9 April 1926, Page 8

The Dominion FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1926. THE ATTACK ON MUSSOLINI

The attempted assassination of Signor Mussolini reported today may have far-reaching consequences. Under the standards Sid” tovo grown up during the autocrat,e control ot S.gnor Mussolini violence in Italy tends to assume a normal aspect. At the same time the attack on the outstanding figure in the country at a critical period in his tempestuous career is certain to arouse intense feel n" amongst his countrymen. Indeed it may serve o raise him 1 S er than ever in the popular fancy of the emotional people he rffies and smooth away many of the difficulties which of late have C ° nf So ‘mudShas happened since Signor Mussolini assumed power in Italy that it is difficult to believe that only three years and a half have passed since King Victor Emmanuel invited him to. fonri a Ministry. Although he has ruled as an autocratic dictator and has figured at times of late in the character of a distempered firebrand Mussolini has much good work for Italy to his ciedit. _ Ihe record of his career since he was placed at the head of affairs is a strange patchwork of light and shade. . On the eve of his elevation to power, Italy was in a fair way to become a prey to Bolshevism. A pohtical organisation having as its central feature-an exaggerated system of group politics had proved incapable of coping with after-war economic exhaustion and the discontent it generated. In finding and applying the remedy for these conditions, Mussolini showed himself a strong and able man. Under his leadership the downward plunge of the lira was arrested, the national finances were rehabilitated, and the people of Italy settled down to the task of bringing back better times by hard Wol This is the bright side of Mussolini’s record. In contrast there is to be set the fact that he has maintained himself in power by methods that are mildly described as unscrupulous, and that he has developed a reckless intemperance of language in dealing with foreign affairs as has threatened to endanger European peace. In his later speeches there is much to suggest that he is posturing before the world as a sabre-rattling despot. . It is doubtful if the annals of statesmanship can show any more reckless defiance than the dictator of Italy hurled at Germany some weeks ago over the question of the Southern lyiol. In the course of his speech he claimed, it is true, that Italy had gone out of her wav to meet the requirements of the German population now living under' her rule, but the dominant note of his utterance was one of unbridled defiance and denunciation. If a tourist boycott . were organised by the Germans and obtained even the tacit tolciance of" responsible authority, he declared, Italy “would answer with a boycott squared.” and to any possible reprisals she would answer “with reprisals cubed.” His concluding words were a bellicose threat ° f "pie hoped, he said, that his speech would be understood by those concerned in such a way that the Italian Government will not have to resort to a concrete answer, a it would resort to-morrow should the German Government assume the resoonsibihty of what has happened or what may still happen in Germany 1 . Fascist Italy can, if necessary, carry the Tricolour across the Brenner. TteVltSc’-power of Signor Mussolini is now being chaileiwed to some extent by members of his own party as well as by outside opponents. How far schisms have divided the Fascist ranks is not yet clear, but much as Signor Mussolini has done for a y there is much in the record of' the party that must repel and humilitate.