NOT A FASCIST

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 13

NOT A FASCIST

Marshal Badoglio And Politics Marshal Badoglio, whose resignation was recently announced in terms which suggest that he relinquished the office of Chief of Staff as a protest against the recklessness of Mussolini's attack on Greece, has never been a Fascist, Like most of the professional soldiers in the totalitarian States, Marshal Badoglio had a dislike bordering on contempt for the political cohorts surrounding the dictator. Von Fritsch, the German Chief of Staff who was removed because he opposed Hitler’s invasion projects, disliked the Nazis openly, and when lie was killed in Poland shortly after the outbreak of war there appeared little doubt that he was a victim of political minder. When General de Bono, one of the original Fascist leaders in the “march on Rome" bad “messed up ’ the attack on Abyssinia, it was Badoglio who was sent out to put things straight. He displayed great energy and found the Fascist battalions of great service as labour battalions.

De Bono Ims been employed since on diplomatic work only. Marshal Balbo, another Fascist officer, became a popular hero in Italy after his air armada had flown to America and back, and was then moved our of the way to Libya. He became critical of Mussolini’s policy when Italy linked with Soviet Russia, and. like Badoglio, considered the forces at his disposal insufficient for the tasks imposed on him. .Later Balbo was killed in suspicious circumstances in an air crash in Libya. Another Fascist leader of whom little has been heard since the war opened is Grandi, the real organizer, with de Bono, of the famous march on Rome, in which actually Mussolini took no part. When Grand!, as the first man after Mussolini, became too popular, lie was moved to London as Ambassador to St. James’, where he was an effective diplomat. Since the outbreak of war, however, Grandi has disappeared from the news, and his standing in the Fascist party, of which he was a hero, cannot be gauged. Grandi, in spite of his comparative youth, has never shown recklessness nor has he favoured the extremist section of the party.

If the resignation of Marshal Badoglio indicates a crack in Italian unity, there are elements within the Fascist ranks which may become centres of disaffection about which those who object to their country trailing as Hitler’s jackal will organize.