Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8th., 1933 MUSSOLINI.

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1933, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8th., 1933 MUSSOLINI.

JT would be interesting to know what Signor Mussolini does in his spare time. Gradually he is becoming his own Cabinet, he is ever willing to conduct other nations’ foreign policy, and when the hours hang, he institutes “marriage drives,” or some other crusade enough to keep the average administrator as busy as he desired. This acceptance of responsibility musthave its limits, and even as far as it has gone, cannot be really to Italy’s advantage. The Diice is ad-

mittedly a leader of men and has wrought his people lasting good, but melagomania seems to have set it. Were this to affect Italy only, foreigners would be less concerned, but there is room for anxiety about Mussolini’s increasing desire to be abroad, what he is at home. One by one, and sometimes two by two, or more, he has dismissed his Cabinet Ministers, and seized their portfolios. Possibly, no harm was done to national interests in some instances, but all the rejected have not been incompetents. The latest “resignations” include that of Air Marshal Balbo, who was in command of the recent Italian aerial mass-cruise across the Atlantic. That achievement made Balbo the hero of the hour in Italy, and great expectations were aroused about his future. Mussolini has now despatched a possible rival to darkest Africa, where his ambitions will be checked, and his aerial knowledge wasted. That is not the way to keep Italy great, and the developments suggest that Mussolini is a dangerous man for foreign Powers to rely on. If un- | scrupulous sacrifice, when considered expedient, is the fate of Italians, what might not happen to foreign, statesmen, in similar contingencies? It is absurd to claim

that Italy has no great men except the Duce, and the question must arise in many Italian minds, today, whether what is gained from the genius of Mussolini is not lost by his reluctance to utilise the abilities of others.

As for international affairs, Mussolini has usurped prominence of late, especially in connection with the German attitude towards France and Britain. Regarding

him as the one most , likely to be

able to bring about reconciliation, British-Franco statesmen have, permitted Mussolini to have almost a deciding voice, but despite mysterious negotiations, little that is concrete has yet resulted. Something definite will have to be done following the plebiscite in Germany, this week, on the Hitler policy, a “plebiscite” that has been arranged to be mainly affirmative. The “Daily Herald,” a Labour paper given to sensation, alleges that Italy has warned the Nazis not to invade Austria, otherwise, Italian troops will advance. Some of Italy’s neighbours will be suspicious of any such protection of Austria, as being a camouflaged attempt to obtain possession of Austrian territory. However, until the “Herald” report is confirmed, conjecture on that possibility is unnecessary. There appears to be rather too much Mussolini in foreign affairs, of late, and there is always the danger that he will support' the spectacular instead of the safer prosaic. Little that is depreciatory of Mussolini’s policy is ever noised abroad, but that absence of adverse criticism does not necessarily mean an absence of cause for it.