MUSSOLINI’S MUSKETEERS

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 5

MUSSOLINI’S MUSKETEERS

HIS PERSONAL BODYGUARD Mussolini has a personal bodyguard of 12 musketeers, not the conventional three. These men have protected him ever since his famous march on Rome iu October, 1922. _ They were chosen for their keen eyesight and hearing, for their swiftness in emergency. Mussolini’s guard is the most sleep-lessly-watchful, most ruthless bodyguard in the world. The men have a sinister look, suggesting medieval inquisitors in a play. But their attitude to their job is severely realistic. Never once has an unauthorised man or woman been allowed to draw near their chief. Instructions are to suspect swiftly—and shoot as soon as they suspect. The bodyguard’s particular job is to look after the Duce indoors —either at the Palazzo Venezia or elsewhere. Outside Mussolini has hordes of military and the police to guard him. On duty in corridors and at doorways, the muskeeters stand guard with carbines and fixed bayonets. They also have automatic pistols. All are dead shots. Penalty for any man who dozes at his post is instant execution. This has never been necessary. The bodyguard are also expected to track down tho slightest sound that strikes them as out of the ordinary in the vicinity of the Duce, whose own hearing has been described as “pucro-phoae-like.’i

Visitors received by Mussolini in private audiences are, unknown to themselves, watched by concealed members of the bodyguard throughout. the interview.

Once a distinguished visitor, chatting with Mussolini, brushed an ashtray from the Dictator’s desk, with his hand. It had hardly crashed to the floor before the visiter found two black-clothed men at his elbows. _ They had glided with lightning-like swiftness from behind a curtain. Even the cup of milk that Mussolini drinks at his desk every morning is under the eyes of a member of the bodyguard from the moment it leaves the kitchen. Once, too, it is said, the almost psychic sense of one of the trusty 12 saved Mussolini’s life. One morning, going on duty, the guard found that he had lost one of his black gloves. He hurried to Mussolini. “It is an omen,” he declared. Mussolini, one of whose characteristics is superstitition, believed him. He ordered that a personal appearance which he was to have made at a public gathering just outside of Rome should be cancelled. Later police arrested an armed antiFascist, who had been lurking near the scene of the meeting—waiting to kill the Duce (says the ‘ Sunday Referee ’). When the Duce left for Germany the musketeers travelled just ahead of him, to make arrangements for his indoor safety in conjunction with the Nasi secret police. They surrounded their master the moment he crossed the frontier. . ; For this journey Mussolini was advised to replace one or two or the older men. He has refused. “ Give me my tried friends,” ho says. “ I need them now more than ever. With new men one cannot bo sure