MUSSOLINI’S COUNTRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1928, Page 8

MUSSOLINI’S COUNTRY

TIME’S REVENGE.

Forli is Mussolini’s country (writes A. Beaumont, Rome correspondent of the “Sunday Times”). It is at Predappio, in the province of Forli, that he was born in 1883, at Forlimpopoli that he studied as a rebellious youngster in the little Salesian college, and it was at Forli that he published his first newspaper. It is Forli and all the places round about, therefore, that should be very proud of him, that should erect statues and monuments in his honour and otherwise show their recognition.

They do so, to a very great extent, but then, after all, human nature is the same everywhere. The old street sweeper of Forli who attended the first meetings of Mussolini twenty years ago is vexed because Mussolini has not appointed his son to stationmaster. Another who used to carry the red flag and who is now a poor commercial traveller is annoyed to think that the Duce has not made him an Ambassador, and a third thinks that because he fought in the streets and helped in the local riots he ought today to be at least General of the Fascist Militia. „

These little disappointments are borne by the old companions of Mussolini with stoical fortitude, it is true, but they rankle in their breasts, nevertheless, and when alone by themselves they think of the Red Flag, “Old Glory,” that they carried around the square whilst the Duce marched at their head, and the hard knocks they gave and received and for which they have now received no recompense. It is very discouraging. But they stand erect and raise their hand in a rigid Roman salute as soon as a band of Fascist schoolboys in black shirts passes by.

Perhaps in the little troop of youngsters proudly wearing the black shirt the heroic veteran sees his own boy, who salutes his “Dad” and is proud among the other boys that his father' was a Mussolinian. The young people are all enthusiastic Fascists to-day, just as their elders were fanatical Revolutionaries before. And it is all quite natural. The young have the whole future open before them such as they can make it; the veterans have only their past for which they deservo no thanks.

A few months ago I was present at a curious ceremony here in Forli. It was the dedication of a beautiful high column of white stone and marble, newly erected, with the image of the “Madonna del Fuoco” on the summit, in the Piazza del Duomo. The Archbishop of Bologna, many other bishops and clergy, and the Minister of Public Instruction, Fedele, were present, with a large gathering of the people of Forli and all the places round about. The column and statue were erected to replace an old column with the “Madonna del Fuoco” which had stood for centuries in the middle of the principal square, and which —with all due regard be it said —the mob had destroyed in one of its riotous humours after it had listened to a speech of the young revolutionary, Mussolini, when he was 25 years df age. Au old accomplice of the deed confessed it to me before the ceremony whilst sitting at a table under the arches in front of the old “Circolo Forlivese,” which used to be the Republican Club. He said: “It was in 1908, the day we heard of the execution of Francisco Ferrer, the hot revolutionary of Spain. I was one of the leaders of the Republican Club, and young Mussolini had just begun organising the Socialists. We agreed to hold a meeting together, of Socialists and Republicans, the same evening. A big crowd was gathered in the great square, and first the lawyers Gaudenzi and Bonavita spoke. Then someone shouted in the crowd, ‘Parla Mussolini I ’

“Mussolini stood up, quite a young man, as I well remember, little known as yet as a public speaker, pulled himself together, started saying—‘Pocche Parole!’ a few words —and he spoke for half an hour at the foot of the old column of the ‘Madonna del Fuoco,’ with all eyes turned on him and every ear listening. His speech was fiery, violent, straight to the point, and concluded with an appeal to action. “The mob took him at his word, and in an instant they attacked the column of the poor Madonna, who was not guilty at all for the execution of Ferrer, and who had been blandly smiling on the good people of Forli ,for three or four hundred years, and in another half an hour the column was toppled over and the statue crumbled to pieces in the middle of the square. The mob shouted victory and seemed to feel it had done a great thing. I feel ashamed of it, for the part I had myself in those days, but what will you—these are things one does in moments of popular excitement.”

“AUTRE TEMPS.”

My ex-Republican informant, who is evidently converted from the evil ways of his early youth and who at that moment wore the Fascist badge, saluted another ex-Republican who passed with the Roman salute, and continued his story. “Another part of the mob,” he said, “had moved over to the bishop’s palace intending to break into it. But, as there are barracks near by, the troops were called out and stopped the mob, which only had time to smash in some windows.”

Exactly 20 years later, after Mussolini had firmly established the “Fascist Revolution,” the town of Forli made up for the mischief it had done to the inoffensive “Madonna del Fuoco,” and with Mussolini’s own approval a new column and statue to the Madonna was erected. This is the curious revenge sometimes taken by history. When Mussolini had broken away from the rest of the Socialist Party and formed a dissenting “chapel” of his own in 1914, and started preaching war, he that had led the crusade for peace and against war in Libya, his old followers in Forli longed to have him in their power just for a quarter of an hour to do to him what they had done to the gentle “Madonna del Fuoco.” One can imagine their feelings when in the elections of 1919, after going to the war and coming back lame, limping and wounded, he had the audacity to ask for their votes in their constituency. No wonder the Socialist paper “Avanti” sarcastically pointed out that not a single vote had been cast for him in Forli or Predappio! But two years later, even Forli and Predappio felt ashamed of what they had done and voted for him and elected him. True, he might have done without their votes then, as he was elected at the same time by Milan. The “Fascist idea” of Mussolini had taken root even in Forli and Predappio, and not only his early “Socialist Revolutionaries,” but the one-time Republicans and Clericals became Fas-' cists, including the genial Count Guddi Pepoli, the Podesta of Forli to-day of the same great family as the Count Pepoli, who, in the middle of the last

century proclaimed the independence of Bologna, as well as the humble vendor of newspapers. Damarini, who still has his stall in the principal Piazza and with whom Mussolini used to sit and chat and eat chestnuts, and who was an enthusiastic distributor of the first newspaper, the “Lotta di Classe,” published by Mussolini. Professor Pergoli, director of the important public library of Forli, kindly showed me the collection of what was the best and most interesting weekly paper ever published in the town. The “Lotta di Classe” does not represent the ideas of Mussolini to-day, nor of the people of Forli, but it is curious to read in it the fiery denunciation of the African War in 1911, under the Government of Giolitti, as an “impressa ladresca” —an expedition of brigands—or to read of the Commune of Paris as a revolution to be imitated!