MUSSOLINI AS PROFESSOR

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 59, 3 December 1926, Page 11

MUSSOLINI AS PROFESSOR

ANCIENT ROME AND THE SEA “FULL MARKS” The visit of Signor Mussolini to Perugia on October 4 (says a correspondent of the London “Observer”), differed from the usual triumphal progresses he is accustomed to, and had a special significance both for his own people and for the outside world. The preparations for his reception, both as regards organisation and splendour, were worthy of a city conscious of a distinguished past. All Umbria was there. People had cut short their cures at watering-places, peasants had come long distances' "to sea the man who is invulnerable”: the man whom neither political adversaries nor anarchists can down. He is fast becoming a legendary figure which contrasts strangely with his driving vitality. People are mesmerised by his personality; they are dazzled by the dramatic sequence of events in his rise to power, aud by the solemn promises he makes to them of giving Italy "moral and material greatness.” Mussolini was in smiling mood with everyone. He had come on purpose to deliver his promised lecture to the students of the University for Foreigners, founded last year by royal decree. . Students belonging to fourteen nationalities, together with a distinguished gathering of scholars and prominent Italians, assembled in the frescoed hall of the Jurists in the Communal Palace, one of the verv finest mediaeval buildings in Italy, to hear him speak on “Ancient Rome as a Sea Power.” Two mace-bcarers in black tuuie and breeches, crimson mantle and ruffles, without whom it was not lawful for jurists to walk abroad in the olden days, stood on either side of canopied chair; the radio was in front; the fasces, with tho hatchet outside, and a size too large for the fasces, ornamented the crimson hangings. A squad of very youthful Black Shirts, holding their rifles dreamily, like Peruglno warriors, guarded the entrances. One could have heard a pin drop as Mussolini entered, and all through his lecture there was a religious silence. Everyone respected his evident desire to come among them as Professor, not as Duce. They were keen, too, not to lose a single word, and deafening applause came at the end. He brought a precious gift to Perugia by the seriousness of his lecture, which was a most able survey of Rome, as a sea-power, its rise, its many vicissitudes, and final triumphs through dogged persistence. “I have no new thing to tell you,” he eaid, simply, "I have invented nothing.” With a smile he told the anecdote of the Carthaginian ambassador, who said that the Romans could not wash their hands in the Mediterranean without the permission of Carthage,. After a holocaust had been made of Carthaginian ships and the great African city fell, the Mediterranean became "a Roman Lake.” Her power on sea as well as upon land was the result of enduring tenacity and inflexible determination, virtues which were as valuable in the past as they will be to-morrow and always. If, as Mussolini said, ho told us nothing new, ho had. at least given us a living story: history and actuality were linked together, and no professor ever had a more wide-awake audience. He told Professor Pais after his lecture that he had felt abashed to speak on ancient history before him, but he added with a laugh: “You will perhaps give me minimum marks?’’ "We will give you full marks and with high praise,” answered the professor with enthusiasm. From the professor’s rostrum he passed out on to the great outside staircase overlooking the cathedral square to talk to the Black Shirts and the p ebs, .nd he told them in ringing tones how glad he was "to plunge myself once more into your vivifying humanity after rcevoking the great shadow of Roman bistory/* He praised order, discipline and disinterested work, the indispensable virtues of a successful people; he derided old-fashioned democracies, and praised his own brand; the consent ol the neonle which empowered him to go on with his task of making Italy a great country was true . demo ,^£’ lt a£ plauso greeted his assertion that Itali ans were perhaps the af o a f now political, system and of n tjpe new civilisation. 9