THE ITALIAN DICTATOR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 6 August 1926, Page 2

THE ITALIAN DICTATOR.

“WHAT HIE! WANTS IS WHAT ITALY WANTS.”

A NEW VIEW, OF JAPAN

Speaking on the necessity of Italy to expand by way of immigration, Major Arnoldi Gipolla, the special correspondent of La Stamp,a, the leading journal of Turin, informed' a. Dominion reporter tlia-t. i prosperous, in thiat her industries were exceedingly motive, but not too much should be .made of that, as it had to bo remembered that such a. condition lilac! only been brought about by the low wages that were paid to the work-men-^—probably the lowest wages paid to white tradesmen throughout the world.. “The maximum wage paid to our best tradesmen in Turin, our biggest manufacturing city, is a dollar (4.S 2d) a day. Ido not know of any other white man’s country where you can get skilled labour for so low a price. But then you people out here must realise that your standard of living is very high compared with that of Europe, and Italy in particular. Do you know that the Prefects (practically the governors) of great provinces such as Turin, Milan, and Rome only receive the equivalent of £6O per mlont-h, and the tariffs of some leading hotels in New Zealand are four times greater than what I would; have to pay in the best hotel in Rome.” Referring to. Mussolini, whom the visitor has met on several occasions, Major Ci.polla stated that he was not a man of any great culture, but a fascinating and magnetic speaker, who had risen on a wave (supported by his antagonism to Communism and hi.s firm belief in the destiny of Italy to become a ' great nation if given the opportunity to- expand by means of emigration and colonisation. “He : s a forcible personality who knows what ho wants, and as what he wants is what Italy wants he command the respect and good wishes of the majority of the people of Italy. Almost the whole of the Press of Italy is for him. There are still communistic papers, but- tiny are censored to such an extent that they do not carry very much \yeigbt. ’ ’ Major Cipolla’s connection with the special Press of Italy dates back to the Russian-Japanese War, when he was sent to Japan to represent La Shanipa- one month after lie had left the university to (take up journalistic work. He was at the taking of Port Arthur, and subsequently went toManchuria with the victorious- Japanese. He does not think that Japan will ever be one of the dominating nations of the earth, and considers that there is a great deal of exaggeration in some people’s computation of the ability of these people to do- great- things in the history of the world, an idea born originally in the defeat of a- degenerate Russia. Outside Tokio and -Osaka there are no really large cities in Japan, and the population of inland Japan is not nearly so dense as it is usually -supposed to -be. As a matter of fact, one of the thing,s that .surprised the visitor most was to note how thin -the inland population of Japan was compared with what -lie had been led to believe. There were no reliable -statistics regarding population to fas bad, but though it- was represented ■as about 80,000,000, lie was inclined to believe that it was nearer 60,000,000. Beyond- tlieir gift for imitation and their industry, the Japanese were not a great people, and lie did not think that- there was any cause to worry about war with them or any other Eastern race for five or ten centuries—-so Why worry at all ? The talk of war between Japan-and America- was stupid —and the Japanese knew It.