DUCE’S ADMISSIONS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20490, 26 February 1941, Page 7

DUCE’S ADMISSIONS

DAMAGING PHRASES ITAUANS OUTWITTED CYRENAICA CONQUEST {British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Feb. 25. Signor Mussolini’s admission during his speech before the Fascist rally in, Rome that General Sir Archibald Waveil’s offensive which resulted in the conquest of Cyrenaica anticipated by five or 10 days one which the Italian commander, Marshal Graziani, had planned against Egypt, was one of many damaging confessions made in the address, which must have read strangely to Italians who have memories of this admission, says the Manchester Guardian. "It means, if anything, that the Italians were outwitted as well as outfought,” states the Guardian. The Daily Mail says: “It is barely three months since Signor Mussolini was saying that the Italian occupation of Sidi Barrani was “merely a prologue” to great victories, that the Italian navy was master in the Mediterranean, and that the Italian airfarce dominated the sky. II Duce now bewails Italy’s unpreparedness. If she had been ready, he says, she would have entered the war in September of 1939. But that was just when Signor Mussolini was making his so-called peace effort. That offer of mediation was plainly a fake.” The Daily Herald notes the candour of Signor Mussolini’s confession that he has been fighting Britain since he came into power and adds: “So much for the amiable gestures and “gentlemen’s agreements’ with which he often succeeded in lulling the suspicions of our statesmen.”

The Daily Telegraph draws attention to that part of the speech in which Signor Mussolini directed the eyes of his followers inwards to the Germancontrolled continent. The Daily Telegraph adds: “By keeping to the land, he says, the Axis must win and victories on continental soil are bound to overthrow Britain. This vision of a land-bound Axis conquering the world comes strangely from an adventurer who boasted his intention of reviving the might of ancient Rome, which never ruled one yard beyond the coast frontier of Italy until she won command of the sea.”