Evening Post MONDAY, APRIL 10, 1939.

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 83, 10 April 1939, Page 6

Evening Post MONDAY, APRIL 10, 1939.

THE FASCIST MASK

[ While peaceful peoples in different parts of the Christian world were preparing to celebrate Easter and to enjoy a brief holiday in rest and j recreation from work and worry, one of the two men who for some years past have been periodically disturbing the established code of international relations seized the opportunity to strike another shattering blow at peace. On Good Friday, when recourse to violence would in the case of Christian countries be least expected, Italian armies under the direction of the Italian dictator, Signor Mussolini, descended without warning—like a bolt from the blue the attack has been described —on the Adriatic coast of the little State of Albania. "The surprise choice of Good Friday," said "The Times" in comment the next day, "was doubtless a cynical element in the plan of concealment." The Albanians at first offered a stout resistance, but the odds were outrageous, and today it is announced that the Italian occupation of Albania has been completed and that the King and Queen, with their infant son, a new-born babe, are exiles in Greece. For a few hours, while Albania still retained her independence under assault, there were reports of "the crudely-armed Albanians sniping behind rocks and hurling boulders down the hillsides and Italian squads driving them out with hand-grenades, bombs, and machine-guns." Then there was silence, followed some hours later by an announcement from Rome that the Italians had entered Tirana, the Albanian capital, after which "the Tirana radio station broadcast the Italian national anthem, signifying that the occupation had been completed." From that time on the news from and of Albania is Italian.

What does this news say? First that "the populace cheered the Italian troops entering Tirana, where the newspapers, in special editions, acclaimed "the friendly Fascists under General Guzzoni, who had established a new order in Albania.' Many notable Albanian people called at the Italian legation to pay homage to Italy and the Duce." It is all so reminiscent of the conquest of Abyssinia. King Zog is the Haile Selassie in the piece. Like that other exiled monarch, he is subjected to all sorts of* abuse from the inspired Italian Press. Thus Signor Yirginio Gayda, the favourite mouthpiece of the Duce, in the "Giornale d'ltalia":

King Zog wishes to rule as a feudal and tyrannical lord unmindful of the elementary needs of his people. He is greedy for money for his own caprices and ambitions. An irresponsible animator of internal discord and international intrigue, King Zog is an implacable enemy of Albanians who do not belong to his political gang.

Much the same was said of Haile Selassie, and the world, if it was unable to help him, knows at least where' its sympathies lie. The parallel of Albania and Abyssinia is completed by the statement, in the news from Rome, that "Mustapha Kraja, King Zog's exiled political rival, will form a 'national Government.' The Italian Government has always kept in closest touch with Kraja." Just as they did with Ras Gugsa, the renegade in Abyssinia. The formula of Fascist aggression, and the same applies to the Nazis in Austria, Czechd-Slovakia, and elsewhere, is intrigue plus intervention.

There comes a time when falsehood and trypocrisy continually practised begin to assume not only the mask but almost the conviction of truth. This danger we pointed out in an article headed "The Decay of Truth" at a much earlier stage in the development of the Fascist-cum-Nazi technique of alternately browbeating and befogging the world. When the totalitarian Powers enter a country truth departs, yet the Italian radio, according to a message today, has- broadcast in all languages the following communique:

News circulated abroad regarding the operations in Albania is so fantastic that it is hardly worth*- denying, especially as the method is the same as in the Ethiopian war. It has been known and proved that the Fascist regime always follows one method, that of always speaking the truth.

"Always one method, that of always speaking the truth"—this after what has happened in Ethiopia, in Spain throughout two and a half years' war, and in Italy itself! Does anyone outside the totalitarian States themselves and their circle of supporters abroad believe what is given out in print and over the air on behalf of these States? This is what a German authority, Herr Banse, . says of propaganda:

Permanent agencies must be entertained abroad to draw a close net of unobtrusive propaganda over hostile and neutral countries, availing themselves of all means that seem to suit

their purposes: Press and broadcasting, cinema and espionage; charitable institutions and activities. Every means is legitimate, where it is a question of thoroughly demoralising the enemy's, and strengthening one's own, mind in the period preceding the struggle.

That such methods have been and are being pursued by the totalitarian States is clear enough from what has already^ happened in Europe and the Near East and from the discoveries made of Fascist penetration and propaganda in Latin America. But it is doubtful whether such methods do not overreach themselves. About the Albanian aggression, no matter what Signor Gayda and the Italian official Press and radio may say, there is only one opinion in the outside world where truth and freedom still have some meaning—that it is the climax in brutality, cynicism, and effrontery of all the sinister series of actions that have so horrified, disgusted, and alarmed decent civilised

peoples. "The Times," in its leader on the attack, says that the Italian operations in Albania will doubtless rank as "a model of totalitarian strategy." If so> the world knows what to expect.