The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1925. THE TRIALS OF ITALY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 7 January 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1925. THE TRIALS OF ITALY.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock In Hawcra Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatunji, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

There have been several figures in the world’s history who were either great men or fools —and more than once posterity has not been able to decide which. In the present generation Benito Mussolini, grand high priest of Fascism and dictator of Italy, bids fair to join that group. Fascism arose as the force of order, in opposition to the sinister influences of Bolshevism known to be at work in Italy; its admires are convinced that it saved Italy from a Bolshevist revolution. Maybe it did. Oliver Cromwell saved England from the high-handed despotism of the Stuart kings; but it wasn’t very long before the country began to chafe under the Cromwellian regime. And today Italy, no matter what she may owe to Fascism, shows signs of restlessness under Signor Mussolini’s rather extraordinary methods of carrying on the government. For six weeks the Italian Parliament has been in session without any Opposition at all, the 11011Fascist parties (comprising over a hundred deputies) adhering to their decision to take no part in the proceedings. But if the Opposition is silent on the floor of the House it is doubly active in the country, which stands divided into tw r o bitterly hostile camps. “All Italy,” wrote the Rome correspondent of the Observer recently, “seems as though moved by two impelling forces which have not learned as yet to pull together. Everything is either black or white; no room for subtle shades of thought and opinions, no compromises.” With the country in such there , can be no progress; and Signor Mussolini will most certainly not have improved matters by his latest speech, declaring that, as the Opposition has persistently rejected his efforts at pacification, he has decided that force must be the arbiter. Again there is a touch of Cromwell, who had his own fixed ideas of what was good for the country, and believed himself the instrument of God for putting those ideas into practice. And the methods which failed in England two hundred and fifty years ago threaten to stir Italy to revolt to-day. It would be a mistake, however, to imagine that Signor Mussolini has already lost his hold. Fascism probably has reached its zenith; it may even be on the wane, but it is still a force to be reckoned with in Italy, and blood may

be spilled again in the streets of Rome before things right themselves. The power that still attaches to the dictator’s word is apparent from to-day’s cables, which report that the immediate result of his threat has been to bring the entire Opposition Press to heel. Also, Signors Giolitti and Orlando, invited to join in the revolt, have refused; but Signor Giolitti, whose attitude hitherto has been one of benevolent neutrality, has been driven into opposition by the internal condition of the country. The consequent loss to the prestige of Fascism is considerable, There are few pages in modern history so inspiring as those which tell of the struggle for Italian unity, and the name of Garibaldi is written high on the scroll of national heroes. It is unlikely that the people for whom the Red Shirts won freedom will consent now to be led back into tyranny by the Black Shirts. Signor Mussolini has many of the attributes of greatness; but, if lie persists in his policy of the iron hand, crushing all who oppose him and aiming to prevail by force alone, he cannot complain if the verdict of time classes him among the fools.