BRITISH LEADERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 88, 11 March 1930, Page 7

BRITISH LEADERS.

COMPARISON WITH MUSSOLINI. SOMERSET DE CHAIR’S BOOK. “No one who, like myself, has come under the direct influence of Mussolini’s personality, can fail to have the profoundest admiration, not only for the man himself, but for the machine of which he is the very soul,” writes Mr Somerset de Chair, son of the Governor of New South Wales, in “The Impending Storm,” a contribution to international political literature. “By comparison, the Baldwins and MacDonalds of our petty democracy seem extremely little,” says the young author. “It is the Napoleons and Mussolinis who make world history. But, unfortunately, they also make ivorld wars.”

Referring to the blockade patrol carried out by his father, Sir Dudley de Chair, the son says: “While thousands of British lives were being thrown away without bringing the end of the war one moment nearer, this British Admiral, with his gallant band of- ships stretching from the Orkneys to the Arctic, facing the perils of storm and the rigours of cold, was examining at sea, no matter what the weather conditions were like, every ship that passed, removing from the holds, frequently in face of armed resistance, cunningly disguised contraband, which was being smuggled to German troops. “This blockade was bringing Germany hourly to her knees. Of the many thousands of neutral ships examined, only one, the Albatross, succeeded in smuggling contraband.” Mr de Chair predicts that in the next war Germany, Italy and Hungary will be arrayed against France, Russia, Poland and Turkey, and the Little Entente of Central European countries. Britain, he says, is more likely to join Italy and Germany than France, while Japan and China will oppose Russia. He advocates the unification of Europe, after the expulsion of the Turks, as the first step toward the unity of the world.