Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1926. MUSSOLINI AND CEASAR

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 108, 3 November 1926, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1926. MUSSOLINI AND CEASAR

Writing in the September "Review of Reviews," Mr. Wickham Steed mentions "a recent rumour from Rome" as indicating that the King of Italy was actually beginning to follow the lead of his brother of Spain and to display a little independence.^ The story was that Mussolini had "informed the King that he wished to see him at a certain hour," but, after allowing the hour to pass without replying, the King fixed his own time for the interview and made the Quirinal Palace of State the place instead of the Royal villa. When the Dictator arrived he found the King in the Throne Room surrounded by "all the Generals and Admirals then in Rome. It is to be feared that, even if this unauthenticated story be correct, any advance that King Victor Emmanuel may have made towards emancipation before the end of August has been reversed by the events of the next two months. On the 11th September Signor Mussolini had a narrow escape from assassination when a bomb which had been aimed at him struck his motor-car, but; fell and exploded harmlessly on the road. At Bologna on-Sunday a revolver bullet went near enough to its mark to sever the ribbon of a decoration that he was wearing and to pierce the edge of his uniform and the sash of the Order of St. Maurice. With his unfailing sense of dramatic fitness, the Dictator has forwarded the sash to the leader of the Bologna Fascists and further improved the occasion by a fiery speech. Even without any embellishment the second narrow escape within two months, and the third within seven months, must have intensified the heroworship of a highly emotional people into something very like j apotheosis. On this occasion the thankfulness | and the patriotism of the Italian | people have a good lead from religion. "It is a new sign that Signor Mussolini has. God's full protection," says the Pope. The religion which Mussolini once scorned has been the constant I object of his official care, and he has carried his championship so far as to enforce the teaching of Roman Catholicism in the national schools. Both the excellent relations bej tween the Vatican and the Government and the people's devotion to their' leader must be strengthened by the declaration of the Pope. The infallible head of their religion sees in the continued safety of the head of their Government the special favour of the Almighty. A less personal faith finds expression in the declaration of the Duce himself. I' declare, with absolute conviction, he says, that nothing can happen to me until my task is accomplished. In thus avowing his confidence in the Fate which will enable him to complete his work, Mussolini puts himself in line with some of the great commanders of the past and with not a few of the rank and file in the armies of the' Great War. It is the same philosophy which underlies the saying, "Every bullet has its billet." As the billet was determined before the pulling of the trigger, why bother to duck or to dodge what Fate has already settled one way or the other? The theory was strikingly stated in its broadest aspect by the greatest of the Greek tragedians: Though a man be wounded in the breast with wounds innumerable, yet will he not die, if his course be as yet unrun; neither will one escape his appointed death, though he be sitting by his own fireside. But the faith which Mussolini proclaims is more precisely illustrated by the two men whom his prophecy of a Napoleonic year and his determination to renew the glories of the Caesars had already proved to be among his models. The confidence of Julius Caesar and Napoleon in their respective destinies made an immense addition to their strength, and the mere proclamation of it, whether backed by -real faith or not, was a great inspiration to their followers. Bacon, indeed, ascribes Caesar's faith in his fortune entirely to policy, and says that other wise men have been inspired by the same motive to make the same profession. All Wise Men, ho says, to decline the Envy of their owne vertues,; use to aseribo them to Providence and Fortune; For so they may the better assume them: And besides, it is. Greatnesse in a Man to be tho Care of the Higher Powers. So Caesar said to thH Pilot in the Tempest, Caesarem portas et Fortunani eius (you carry Caesar and his Fortune). So Sylla chose tho Name of Felix, and not of Magnus. Napoleon, who, like Caesar, was a politician, as well as a soldier, and who declared that men are governed by the imagination, may be suspected of the same motive for the faith which he so confidently professed, but. there was a streak of superstition in him which may well have co-operated. After escaping from a troop of Arab horsemen, he said: It is not written on high that I am to perish by the hands of the Arabs. That may be called a case, of wisdom after the event, but in the year

before Waterloo Napoleon's faith was put to the test of works. Requested to retire from the field at Monterean to a place of safety, he refused to move, declaring: Courage, my friends; the ball which is to kill me is not yet cast. Nor was the display of Napoleon's faith confined to the battlefield. After his fighting days were over h« was able to contemplate death just as calmly as he did in the presence of his soldiers. I am, he said, tho creature of circumstances. I do but go where events point out tho way. I do not givo myself any uneasiness about death. When a man's time is come he must go. Though Mussolini's ambition to follow in the steps of Caesar and Napoleon does not bode well for the world, it is impossible to deny that, in the courage with which they faced danger and the rhetoric with which they turned it to profit, they supplied him with excellent models, which he has worthily followed. But it is unfortunate that the Dictator's unconquerable spirit appears to have found in his narrow j escape merely a stimulus to the prosecution of the Imperial de- i signs which have made Europe so nervous during the last twelve months. At the first glance the latest attempt upon his life appeared to be less ominous for the peace of the world than its immediate pre-. deeessor. Lucetti, who threw the bomb in September, had only crossed the frontier from France a week before, and this fact was made the ground for a vicious and entirely unpardonable attack upon that country in a speech which Mussolini delivered shortly afterwards. From this balcony, he said, I wish to pronounce certain serious words, which must be accurately understood by those to whom they refer. If the friendship of the Italian people, which might be fatally compromised by the recurrence of incidents of 'this nature, is seriously desired, a certain criminal and unheard-of toleration practised across the frontier must immediately cease. . The present occasion seemed to offer pretext for dragging in France, but while the fury of the Fascists is still hunting for victims we are informed from Rome to-day that voluntary Italian exiles who have headquarters in Paris declare that they are determined to kill Mussolini, and that some of them have already returned to Italy for the purpose. The international trouble which was averted by the tranquillity of France in September may now be revived in an acuter form.