Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12, 1936 BENITO MUSSOLINI.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 63, 12 February 1936, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12, 1936 BENITO MUSSOLINI.

There is no recognised course for tlie training of dictators. Tliey are moulded by circumstances, and circumstances have a habit of playing, tricks with nations, as with individuals. It is doubtful whether Alessandro Mussolini and ltoa Maltoni, the one an almost fanatical revolutionary and atheist and the other a deeply religious woman, guessed that the

son born to them in 1883 would become dictator of all Italy. Benito Mussolini was intended to be a school teacher, and at the age of 18 actually secured an appointment in this capacity at (iualtieri; but he had ambitions and decided to earn his living at manual labour during the day and study at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva at night. He lived among the working classes and earned his living as bricklayer, farmhand, chauffeur, and blacksmith, suggesting versatility. From his father Mussolini inherited revolutionary tendencies. He was expelled from one place after another in Switzerland for his trades union and Socialist activities; but neither this nor his subsequent imprisonment in Italy for the same cause deterred him. He was marked by the Italian policy as a dangerous revolutionary, and again and again he was brought into conflict with the authorities. Mussolini, however, is merely a prototype of many others in different countries.

Italy’s entry into the War was the greatest event in the life of Mussolini. Whatever may have been his political views, he was an Italian first, second and third. When war was declared he issued a statement: “From to-day onwards we are all of us Italians, and only Italians.” When serious wounds put him out of the war, Mussolini was alarmed by the signs of disintegration behind the lines. From that moment his life was devoted to anti-Bolshevik and Communist organisations. He founded the Fascists in 1919, and preached anti-Socialism with the same fervour as he had once used on the other side. He soon gathered around him a great army of adherents, and, buoyed by the fulsome flattery of his devotees, he assumed the dictatorship, and refused to believe that those opposed to him could be patriotic Italians. Several of his opponents faced at dawn firing squads, their great crime being that they opposed Fascism. But what made Mussolini embark on his Abyssinian adventure? It has been explained at various times that Italy needed colonies to find an outlet for surplus population, and, again, that/Italy, being deficient in raw materials, needed Abyssinia. The Ualual incident, which was no more than a drunken frontier affray, was made the excuse of sending a huge expeditionary force to conquer Ethiopia. The excuses put forward for this adventure cannot be accepted as satisfactory. It is not patriotic, nor is it humane, to impoverish a whole nation and cause the slaughter of innocent youths merely to obtain raw materials. It is probable that Mussolini found his stranglehold of _ the country weakening, and, to divert attention from domestic affairs, engaged in war with Abyssinia. The dictator of Germany is in much the same position. He has rehabilitated the army, navy, and air force, and the question now is: What next ? Mussolini has developed an exaggerated idea of his importance in world affairs. He cannot dictate to the world, at all events not to the British. World opinion has been against him in respect of the campaign, the failure of which seems inevitable. He

has made mistake after mistake in his handling of the political troubles arising out of the campaign, and instead of acknowledging defeat and making a graceful withdrawal, he is hoping by bluff to maintain the position he has usurped. If the Abyssinian campaign ends in failure, as seems quite probable, what will be the fate of Dictator Mussolini ? There is an old proverb which reads “Put a beggar on horseback and he will ride to the devil.” Mussolini is proving the truth of the proverb.