MUSSOLINI'S WAY

Evening Star, Issue 21254, 8 November 1932, Page 9

MUSSOLINI'S WAY

DROPPING MINISTERS PREVIOUS INCIDENTS Signor Mussolini has from time to time dropped his most conspicuous supporters when they wore beginning to be considered as of consequence in themselves, apart from being the vehicles of his own authority, says a writer m the ‘ Manchester Guardian.’ The most notable drop of this sort happened in 1926, when Farinacci, the party secretary, suddenly retired into private life. Farinacci led the terrorist campaign of 1925 for the suppression of the opppsition movement after the murder of Matteotti. At the moment of triumph he allowed himself to be teamed the “ Vice Luce,” and to receive tokens ot homage not usually rendered to anyone but the Dime. After the trial of the assassins of Matteotti, in which Farinacci appeared as advocate for the defence, he was instructed to consider his task as finished, and he retired into obscurity with remarkably little noise. The man who in earlier days had frequently appeared as Mussolini’s rival, Luigi Federzoni, pillar of clerical Conservatism in the Fascist hierarchy, was shelved a little more gently, being relegated from the Ministry of the Interior via the Ministry of Colonies to the ornamental post of President of the Senate. Similarly, Alberto De Stefani was dropped from the Ministry of finance, and his successor, Count Volpi, followed him after a brief holding of office, while the general secretaryship of the party has been regularly transferred to a new holder every few months. The _ same might be said of the Governorships ot Rome, Milan, and other leading towns. A newspaper editorship or some other benefice is discovered for the discarded p ol ltlCian 'j3 A LßO REMAINS.

Of the five Ministers who have recently retired three are conspicuous in Fascist history. But the Duce has not swept out with them the man of whom he might most easily feel jealous as a rival in the internal politics of Italy. Italo Balbo, the Air Minister, local “ boss ” of Ferrara, and the most adventurous of the inspirers of Fascist youth, is left behind. He would be a more dangerous adversary at large than any of the five Ministers Mussolini has dropped. All the same, Dmo Grand*, now a prudent and respectable diplomatist, has seen his stirring days. He is a Fascist of the first hour,” and as one ot the rival local “ bosses” of Bologna has done his bit of street warfare. More than this, ten years ago, before the complete triumph of the Fascists, he was for a short time the moral leader of the party. Mussolini, in 1921, grew tired of the civil war, and wanted to come to terms with the Socialists. Grand! opposed him, and at the cr !y ic , moment ensured the continuance ot the struggle till the Socialists were annihi--13 Rocco is a different type. With Federzoni he represents in the Fascist party the old Nationalist party; that flourished in the days of the Tripoli War, and would have preferred to go into the Great War on the German side. TERRORIST OF LAW. Signor Rocco is an erudite theorist of law “and has been responsible for the codification of Fascist theories in the new laws, especially the arch-Fascist laws (Leggi Fascistissime) of 1926-27. Ho has tried more seriously than anyone else to give Fascism a consistent historical theory. A few years ago he outraged the Vatican in one of his speeches by deploring the break-up of the Roman Empire through the spread of Christianity. . The third of the dismissed Ministers of some consequence is Bottai, the Minister of Corporations. This young man has had in theory the key position m the regime, since the whole ot industrial and agricultural contracts are regulated by the corporations (joint associations of employers and employed) centralised at this Ministry. But the corporative state, so perfect on paper, has hardly begun to be realised in practice. Special powers are simultaneously taken out by the Government for investigating and controlling the Stock Exchange.