ITALIAN UNITY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20437, 23 December 1940, Page 11

ITALIAN UNITY

CRACKS INDICATED BADOGLIO’S RESIGNATION DISPLACED LEADERS By “Knob-Turner” Marshal Badoglio, whose resignation was announced recently in terms which suggested that he relinquished the office of Chief of Staff as a protest against the recklessness of Mussolini's attack on Greece, had never been a Fascist.

Like most of the professional soldiers in the totalitarian States, Marshal Badoglio had a dislike bordering on contempt for the political cohorts surrounding the Dictator. General von Fritsch, the German Chief of Staff, who was removed because he opposed Hitler’s invasion projects, disliked the Nazis openly, and when he was killed in Poland shortly after the outbreak of war there appeared little doubt that he was a victim of political murder.

When General de Bono, one of the original Fascist leaders in the “march ■on Rome,” had “messed up” the attack on Abyssinia, it was Badoglio who was sent out to put things straight. He displayed great energy and found the Fascist battalions of great service as labour battalions.

De Bono has been employed since on diplomatic work only. Marshal Balbo, another Fascist officer, became a popular hero in Italy after his air armada had flown to America and back, and was then moved out of the way to Libya. He became critical of Mussolini's policy when Italy linked with Soviet Russia, and, like Badoglio, considered the forces at his disposal insufficient for the tasks imposed on him. Later Balbo was killed in suspicious circumstances in an air crash in Libya. Grandi Disappears From News

Another Fascist leader of whom little has been heard since the war opened is Grandi, the real organiser, with de Bono, of the famous march on Rome, in which actually Mussolini took no part. When Grandi, as the first man after Mussolini, became too popular, lie was moved to London as Ambassador to St. James’, where he was an effective diplomat. Since the outbreak of the war, however, Grandi has disappeared from the news, and his standing in the Fascist Party, ol which he was a “hero,” cannot be gauged. Grandi, despite his comparative youth, has never shown recklessness. nor has he favoured the extremist section of the party.

If the resignation of Marshal Badoglio indicates a crack in Italian unity, there are elements within the Fascist ranks which may become centres of disaffection about which those who object to their country trailing as Hitler’s jackal will organise.