PARLIAMENTARY FACADE GOES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 21 January 1939, Page 9

PARLIAMENTARY FACADE GOES

ITALIAN CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES The Italian Chamber of Deputies has ceased to exist, notes “The Times.” Its place is to be taken by the Chamber of Fascios and Corporations, which with; the Senate will henceforth, under — ve»y much under —their Duce, direct the economic and political life of Italy. The passing of the Chamber of Deputies will not be greatly regretted by patriotic Italians, even by those out of sympathy with Fascist ideas. The Parliamentary system has never shown itself well adapted to the Italian character, and had exhibited long before the days of Fascism a feebleness and a corruption which evoked derision and contempt. The “politicastri,” as its members used sometimes sarcastically to be called, were adepts at groupforming, obstructionism, and intrigue—at all the tricks, in fact, which it is essential to keep out of a healthy Parliamentary system. The earlier reforms of Signor Mussolini gave the Chamber coherence, discipline and purpose, but at the cost of the free election of its members. It had therefore quite ceased to possess the essential feature of a Parliament system, according to English ideas. It indulged rather more successfully in choruses than in individual speeches; and on 14th December it celebrated its own funeral by the singing of Fascist anthems.