VISIT TO ITALY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 17, 21 January 1928, Page 11

VISIT TO ITALY

RULE OF FASCISM NEW ZEALANDER'S IMPRESSIONS The Rev. G. H. Girjb, formerly of the Presbyterian Church, Parnell, Auckland, who, accompanied by Mrs. Gibb, has just completed a two years' tour of Britain and the Continent, was a passenger by tho Tairiui, which arrived in Wellington from London on Wednesday. • . ....-■' In the course of their travels. Mr. and Mrs. Gibb spent some three months in Italy, and while there Mr. Gibb says ho was able to form some estimate of the work which the Fascist Government, under Mussolini, is accomplishing. "Opinion concerning this interesting experiment in. benevolent depotism," says Mr. Gibb, "is divided into two camps. There arc those who hate the present Italian Premier, and who regard him as the embodiment of all that is reactionary in modern democratic theories of government; and, oft the other hand, there are those who worship him as a god, and who hail tho advent of his party as the finest thing that could have happened in Italy. I had opportunity of talking to many British, and American residents in Italy, and from many points of view there was unanimous testimony in favour of tho Fascist Government. These people stated that the land was better.governed than in preFascist days; that there was less unemployment; that much needed public works had been undertaken; that the Government was sure of itself,. and that Bolshevist attempts to capture the country's industries had been stamped out. All bore eloquent testimony to the improvements which have been effected in all these departments of the national life. "All these points I gladly admit, and yet I feel that Fascism cannot be a permanent form of government, and that in view of the bitter struggle of Italy during the last century for freedom, its last state under the dominance of its present rulers will be infinitely worse than the first. The trouble is that you cannot guarantee a line of benevolent despots; and, with the death of Mussolini a great political crisis will arise. Mussolini is Fascism, and Fascism is leaving no alternative government in the land. No attempt whatsoever is being mado now that the party is. firmly established to relax the despotic bonds and educate the people in democratic government. The uncrowned King of Italy is Mussolini, King Emmanuel is a vague -and shadowy figure fluttering about the wings of the political stage. It is Mussolini who is forever in the limelight, and he holds the monarchy and the nation in the hollow of his hand. When he dies there will be many self-appointed sucessors, other factions, and the civil wars will commence. Despotism in whatever guise has always failed as a permanent system of government, and though Italy to-day for other countries is simply Mussolini to-morrow she may be his distracted relict." :.