MUSSOLINI’S ESCAPE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 287, 7 November 1925, Page 9

MUSSOLINI’S ESCAPE.

CONGRATULATED BY KING. ROME, Nov. 5. A sensation was caused throughout Italy by the discovery of the plot against Signor Mussolini. Special editions of the newspapers denounce the culprits. Signor Mussolini lias sent a message to the prefects, instructing them to take vigorous measures to prevent reprisals. The Fascist executive has ordered all Fascists to abstain from violence toward their adversaries. Signor Mussolini received many messages congratulating him on diis escape, the first being from the King. Demonstrations of joy at Signor Mussolini’s escape have been arranged throughout Italy. Zaniboni, the Socialist ex-Deputy, who was a major in war time, and was decorated, engaged a room in the hotel overlooking the balcony from where Signor Mussolini was scheduled to address the war veterans. Police followed him to the hotel, where they found him standing in an attitude ready to fire from a rifle aimed through the window at the balcony, one hundred yards away. He was arrested two hours before the Premier was due to appear and was dressed in the uniform of a major. The police found an Austrian rifle, and noted its precision, also a range-finder and bombs. General Capello, who was also arrested when about to depart for France, is described as a prominent Freemason.—A. and N.Z. cable. CAREFUL PREPARATIONS. CHIEF CULPRIT ANTI-FASCIST. LONDON, Nov. 5. The Daily Express’s Rome correspondent says: “It is officially stated tliat Zaniboni made most careful preparations to assassinate Signor Mussolini, including a motor-car for his escape, but the police received information at the eleventh hour, forced the door of Zaniboui’s room at the Hotel Dragoni, and found bombs. It is stated that the room resembled a miniature arsenal, it had been rented the day before Zaniboni’s arrival by a pale little man, who asked for a front room with a balcony, and he hired a front room for himself in another hotel nearby. It is believed that the plan was to throw a bomb or explode an infernal machine as Signor Mussolini was leaving the Foreign Office. The police also arrested the pale little man and one of the editors of the newspaper Popolo. Zaniboni, since MattentH's death, had been actively engaged in the antiFascist movement. —A. and >,.Z. cable.