"AN ARMED PEACE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1936, Page 4

"AN ARMED PEACE"

MUSSOLINI SPEAKS

CONTEMPT FOR THE LEAGUE

OFFER TO BRITAIN

{ The following is the text ol MussoIlin's speech at Milan on November 1, | says the "Manchester Guardian":— | I intend to defm. the position, of | Fascist Italy towards the other peoples loi Europe. I shall be summary, but | every one ol my words is meditated. II -it is desired to clarify the European atmosphere it is necessary in the 'first place to wipe the slate clean of all the illusions, of all the commonplaces, and all the conventional falsehoods, which still constitute the remains of the great shipwreck of the Wilsonian ideologies. One of these illusions has crashed: — the illusion of disarmament. No one wishes to disarm first, and for all to disarm together .is impossible .and absurd. When the Disarmament Conference, met at Geneva the stage setting was functioning fully. The setting consists in blowing up the balloon till it becomes as big as a mountain. Then all the searchlights of world publicity are concentrated on it for a few days. Finally at a certain moment a tiny mouse emerges from the mountain to end by being lost in a labyrinth of procedure which, for ingenious expedience, has no precedent in history. "Another illusion which we reject is that which passed under the name of collective security. Collective security has never existed, does not exist, and will never exist.- A virile people realises its collective security within its own frontiers and refuses to entrust its destinies to the uncertain hands of third parties. BASED ON "ABSURDITY." Another commonplace which must be rejected is that of indivisible peace.' Indivisible peace could only mean orte thing—indivisible war. But the peoples refuse, and rightly refuse, to fight for interests which do not concern them. The League of Nations is based^upon the absurdity of a standard of absolute juridical parity between all the member States, while the States display differences, at least from the points of view of their historical responsibilities. For the League of Nations the problem could be set forth in the clearest terms. It must renew itself or perish. Since it is extremely difficult for it to renew itself, as far as we are concerned it may quietly die. In any case, we have not forgotten, nor shall we ever forget, that the League organised iniquitous siege against the Italian people with methods of diabolical' ingenuity. It sought to starve' this nation in its concrete living reality of men, women, and children It attempted to break our military force, a work-of civilisation proceeding at a distance of almost 8000 kilometres from the mother country. It did not succeed, not because it did not want tc succeed, but because it found itseli faced by a compact unity of the Italian people capable of every sacrifice, and even of fighting against the coalition oi 52 States. In any case, in order to pursue a policy of peace, it, is not necessary to pass through the corridors of the League of Nations. After seventeen years of polemics,, squabbles;, misunderstandings, and unsettled questjpns, in January, 1935, an accord was reached with France. This accord could have, and should have, opened a new epoch in truly friendly relations between the two countries. FRIENDSHIP COOLS. But sanctions intervened, and naturally the friendship underwent a cooling-off process. Sanctions continued to be applied with truly meticulous rigour. We had been at Addis Ababa for at least two months, and still sanctions continued. It was a classic case of the letter which, kills the spirit, of the formalism which strangles the living concrete reality of life. France today still. keeps her finger pointed to the faded registers of vGeneva and says: "The empire of'the very ex-Lion of Judah is still alive." | But,over the heads of the schoolmasters of Geneva the reality of our victory proclaims that the empire of the Negus is more than dead. It is quite evident that as long as the French Government maintains an attitude of waiting reserve towards us we can only do the same. One of the countries bordering on Italy with which our relations are and will always be extremely friendly is Switzerland. It is a little country, but | one of very great importance, both from its racial composition and from the geographical position which it occupies at the crossroads of Europe. With the agreement of July 11 [the Austro-German agreement] a new epoch opened in the history of modern Austria. All the hasty and ill-formed commentators should take note that the agreements of July 11 were known to me and approved by me as far back as June .5. It is .my conviction that [those agreements have strengthened the structure of that State and have still further guaranteed' its independence. "JUSTICE TO HUNGARY" Until justice is done to /Hungary there can be no final co-Ordination of interests in the Danubian-Basin. Hungary is truly the great mutilated nation. Four millions oi Hungarians live' beyond its present frontiers. In trying to follow the dictates ;of a justice that was too abstract another injustice, per? haps greater, was committed. The sentiments of the Italiari people' towards the Hungarian, people ;are stamped with clear recognition—which for that matter is reciprocal—of its military qualities, its courage, and its spirit of sacrifice. There will perhaps very soon be a solemn opportunity in which these sentiments of the Italian people will • find public and Striking manifestation, ' The fourth country which borders on . Italy is Yugoslavia. In recent days the atmosphere between the two countries has greatly improved. You will remember that two years ago in this very square I referred clearly to the possibility of establishing bonds of cordial friendship between the two countries.. Today ■ I declare that the necessary conditions—moral, political, and economic—for putting the relations between the two countries on a new basis of real and concrete friendship are in existence. ', A country which has recently won great sympathy from the mass of 'the people is Germany/The meetings at Berlin have resulted in an understanding between the two countries on specified problems, some of them particularly urgent at the present time. But these understandings have been conse- ;, crated in duly signed.documents. This ' vertical line between Berlin and Rome is not a dividing line. It is rather an ■ axis round which all European States, animated by the will to peace and col- ■ laboration, can collaborate. Germany, 1 although surrounded and solicited,,did not adhere to sanctions. '■ With the agreement of July 11 an element of tension between Berlin and Rome 'disappeared,;, and I 'must: remind you that i even before the Berlin meeting Germany had practically recognised the Empire of Rome. • FOES OF COMMUNISM. llt is no wonder if today we raise the flag of anti-Bolshevism. For this is our ' old flag. Why, we were born under this sign; we have fought that very enemy. We won through our sacri-

fices and the blood we shed. What Is called Bolshevism or Commuiiibin '*■->- day is only—mark my words w«~il—•* super-State capitalism carried to its most ferocious expression. It is not a negation of a system, but rather a prosecution and sublimation oi the sybtun. It is time now to cease putcing n^cibui and democracy in antithesis. It may be said that this great Italy of ours is also a great unknown. If some of these Ministers, Deputies, and similar rolk would maKe up their minds, once and for all, to cross the Italian frontiers tney would soon con- - vince themselves that if there is one country where a real, authentic, substantial democracy has been developed that country is Italy of the Fascist era. C We reactionaries of all countries— 3 true and authentic reactionaries of all 11 countries —are not embalmers of the j past. Rather are we men to antici--1 pate the future. We seek a" new i synthesis and do not carry capitalism E to its mechanical and almost inhuman - aspect. Through Fascism we open th« - path to a real human civilisation of - work. ; Italy is an island. Bit by bit Italians must acquire an insular mentality^ - for this is the only way to place in ; their proper light questions of the > nation's naval defence. 1 Italy is an island which stretches into -the Mediterranean. This sea—and here . I speak to Englishmen who perhaps . at this moment are at the radio—is a x route for Great Britain. It is one of . many routes—indeed a short cut by 1 which the British Empire can reach its x outlying territories more rapidly. I t would add in parenthesis that when an . Italian, Negrelli, proposed 'cutting the a Isthmus of Suez, he 'was considered . above all in England to be a madman. "FOR US IT IS LIFE." If for others the Mediterranean i» I a route,'for us Italians it is life. Wa Uhave said- a -thousand times, and I repeat it before, .t'.js magnificent multitude, that we do not intend to threaten this route. We' do not propose to cut it, but -we demand, on the other hand, that our right and vital interests also should be respected. There are no alternatives. The reasoning grains s in the'British'Empire must realise that "• -the1 accomplished fact is complete and I irrevocable. , The sooner ihey do so g the better. It is unthinkable that r there could be a two-sided clash, and still more that'there could be a clash which from being two-sided Would immediately,become European. '_ There is, therefore, only one solu- • ._ tidn—a clear, rapid, complete under- £ standing on the basis of the recognition , of reciprocal interests. But if this should not come about, i if—and this idea I have so far excluded—it is really being thought to ' suffocate the life rof the Italian people in-that sea, which-is the sea of Rome, " then let it.be known that the Italian people would jump to it as one man l' ready to fight with a determination! g which Would have few RiUceuu.ub vi history. Comrades of Milan, the marching ° orders for the fifteenth year are the g following:' peace with all, near and far, but armed "peace. Therefore our " armament programme for air, sea, and land will be regularly developed. The s productive energies of -the nation will lZ be speeded up in the, agricultural and * °in the industrial field. The 1 system will be directed towards its 'I conclusive realisation. , But there is one part which I.'as--1 sign to you, people of 'this ardent and splendid city of Milani you rriust put a yourselves in the forefront of the'do D velopment of the Empire so as to make B it in the shortest time possible the ele- \ ment of Well-being of power, and ot - glory for your country. , '