COUP IN ITALY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18235, 31 October 1922, Page 7

COUP IN ITALY.

FASCISTI IN CONTROL. SUPPORT OF THE ARMY.

REVOLT AGAINST SOCIALISM

FALL OF GOVERNMENT.

MUSSOLINI PREMIER.

LOYALTY TO THRONE. By Te!esraph—Press Aerociatiori—Copyright (Received 5.5 p.m.) and N.Z. LONDON. Oct. 29. Following the resignation of the Italian Prime Minister, Signor Facta, and his Cabinet and tho refusal of Signor Salandra to term a Ministry, King Victor Emmanuel has invited Signor Benito Mussolini, Leader of the Fascisti, to form a Ministry.

Telegrams from Rome indicate that only the King's action in refusing to approve a decree of martial law, proposed by Signor Facta, saved the country from a grave outbreak, approaching a state of civil war. After Signor Mussolini refused to co-operate with the Facta Ministry on the ground that the Fascisti alone must govern, the King recalled him, and invited him to form a Ministry.

The Daily Express correspondent states that the Fascisti practically are masters of Rome. Their influence s % supreme throughout Italy, and the Army enthusiastically supports them. Tho Army is loyal to the Government, but the fact that Fascisti deputees are leading the forces in Southern Italy has created a painful impression.

The Fascisti carried Gut their plans swiftly. They intimated that- local prefects must transfer to them their powers, and in a few hours were masters of tho situation in Central Italy. Everywhere officers of the Army treated Fascisti in the most friendly spirit. Signor Mussolini issued a proclamation that the Government must be fully composed of Fascisti. Besides the Premiership, he intends reserving to himself the portfolio?; of Home and Foreign Affairs.

" We march on Rome in order to give Italy her full liberty," declared the text of a bill which was distributed by the Fascisti in Pisa and other cities among officers, soldiers, and citizens. It continued:—" The Fascisti movement is neither against country nor king; we want His Majesty to be really King of Italy, and desire that he should not submit himself to State reasons which are imposed upon him in a cowardly manner by the present weak Ministers. W«j on to Rome to givo the Italian people such an Italy as was dreamed of by 5(X),000 dead in the Great War and by our own dead who continued the war during the peace. We are marching with & sincere desire for peace and love. Ouigreatest shout shall always be: ' Long live the army, the King and Italy.' " Fascisti set fire to the premises of the newspaper belonging to Signor Nitti. ANXIOUS NIGHT IN ROME. VAIN EFFORTS TO AVERT COUP A. acd N.Z. HOME. Oct. 29. Remarkable happenings preceded the resignation of the Facta Government. The Cabinet sat throughout Saturday night, receiving reports from the provinces of risings of Fascisti in several leading cities. The storm centre was Tuscany, where armed Fascisti occupied the public buildings in such plaoes as Florence, Pisa, and Leghorn, despite the resistance of Carabineers. The Fascisti also threatened to march upon Rome in order to give- Italy full liberty and make the King of Italy King indeed. The Cabinet first decreed martial law throughout Italy, but later revoked it upon reports that the situation was improving. A newspaper report states that the King -refused to sign the <Jecr€o -

Ail the Ministers signed an appeal to the Italian .people. The appeal stated that seditious movements had manifested themselves in certain provinces having as their object the interruption of the normal functions of the powers of the State, and calculated to plungo the country into grsve trouble. The Government had thus far tried every possible means of conciliation with the hope of reaching a peaceful solution in the face of insurrectionary attempts. It was the duty of the retiring Government at whatever cost to maintain law and order, and this was a duty it would carry out to the full in order to safeguard the citizens and iree constitutional institutions. On Sunday morning the Cabinet decided to take all necessary measures to maintain order. A complete stoppage of railway trafSo w,as ordered by the military authorities, who also forbade trams, cabs, and taxis to run, or the newspapers to issue until further notice. Parties of Fascist* marching from Leghorn and other places were arrested. Fascisti attempted to sei.ee the Prefecture of Cremona, but the soldiers repulsed them, four of the Fascist! being killed. •* THE RISE OF THE FASCIST!. RED TERROR AND WHITE TERROR. Without an actual revolution Italy has experienced in the last two years a virtual K9d terror and White terror. The Red 7\T ga " with the Socialist triumph • l"™ 4 general election after the war jn 1910, and its climax seemed to have Deen reached in September, 1920, when ™vj? ri *fl Tvere seizcd and workmen, armed with rifles, revolvers, hand grenades, and some quick-firing guns, held them for a lew days like fortresses. What then appeared to be the beginning of a revolution came, however, to nought. Five hundred Socialist deputies, after an allJ"B°t discussion, reached the conclusion that the time was not yet rioe for revo-\v-n; and S 'Pnor Giolitti, 'then Prime Minister, by merely promising the preparation of a Bill to bring about the svndicalisation of industries, persuaded the workmen peacefully to evacuate the factories. Ihen came the reaction, the rise of the racisms This movement was started in a small way i n Milan, largely among exsoldiers, with the two-fold aim of rousing rtaiy to take pride in her victory in the Rreat war, and to press forward to a greater national destiny, and of combating which threatened to turn Italy into a second Russia. The movement grew rapidly; within a few months its oJwTSSa 8 were estimated to number ".UUO.OOO. The methods adopted by the rascisti at the beginning of their campaign were as drastic as those of. th*ir opponents. Their policy was an eye for an eve, a tootli for a tooth. For every crime against the flag or liberty a Coram unci 1 r *' vas ki!Iod ' or e!se the Camera el Uvoro or their newspaper offices in an onending town were set on fire. Not a night pasiwd but shots rang out in most towns and villages in Italy. Syndics judged to e disloyal citizens were peremptorily orunreri to <« i> un itive expedi-

tions, led, by ex-soldiers, becamo a feature of their methods of campaign. Racing through the country in tr> hunt out Communist centres proved an alluring sport for the younger generation, who, without having experienced the hardships of war, Buffered from its exciting influences. Many disreputable characters joined up, and violence was made an end m it-self. • Citizens watched from their walls, children ran home screaming, and women bolted their doors when the crv went round, "The Fascisti are coming." In June and July last year the Fascisti were at the height of their power and the lowest ebb of their fame, and it seemed probable that the movement would bo ruined by its excesses. It was saved, however, by the discipline with which Signer Mussolini was able to curb and direct the zeal of his followers. In September of last year he directly challenged the extremist wing by threatening to resign the leadership of the movement. Disowning the terror of Juno and July, he declared that " Fascismo was no longer a liberation, but a, tyranny ; no longer a safeguard for the nation, but a defence of private interests of the worst kind." From this internal crisis Fascisino emerged no longer a mere army of con dottier i but a powerful political" party of which Signor Mussolini retained the leadership. ■ "j ■ ' NEW PREMIER'S POLICY INTENSE NATIONALISM. RESTORATION OF MALTA. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 9.40 p.m.)' ROME, Oct. 29. Signor Mussolini, the new Prime Minister of Itaiy, is the son of a Socialist blacksmith, who was thrice imprisoned for preaching socialism. His son became an ardent Socialist, and went to Switzerland, whence he was expelled as a moot dangerous criminal. Afterwards lie bocane leader of the Italian Socialists and edited the newspaper Avanti. The war converted him into an equally ardent patriot. He joined the army and was wounded. On his return he established the newspaper Popola d'ltalia. in which he ruthlessly attacked his former Socialist friends and denounced the weakness of the Government in yielding to the Communists. A prominent plank in the Fascisti platform is the restoration of Malta and the Italian provinces of Switzerland. Signor Mussolini's advent to power means the remoulding of Italy on lines i' very intense nationalism. POSSIBILITY OF REPUBLIC. MUSSOLINI FIRST PRESIDENT. (Received 1.6 a.m.) United Service. LONDON. Oct. 30. Tho Daily Mail's Rome correspondent says that Rome regards Signor Mussolini as the first President of an Italian Republic, though he has given conditional allegiance to the King. The Fascisti now number c/er 1,000,000 active members, of whom 700,000 are workmen who for love of their country seceded f-om the extreme trades unions, Signor Mussolini has reached an aeicement with tho General Federation of Labour and the Seamen's Federation. He has allotted himself the portfolios of Internal and Foreign Affairs, the latter temporarily. Other Ministers- include General Diaz, Minister Tor War; Admiral Thaonderevel, Marine; and Signor Paratore, Finance. LEADER OF THE FASCISTI. SAVING ITALY FROM. SOCIALISM. Signor Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Fascisti, which, though not yet two years old as a party, r-ow dominate Italian politics, is a man about whom there have been conflicting and erroneous opinions, wrote Mr. A. Beaumont, the Italian correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, in a recent article. "By some he is conceived merely as a tighter, a sort of Goliath, who is every day challenging to battle. Others imagine that he lacks culture and preparation, and is great only in physical courage. Some consider him only a virulent pamphleteer, a sort of Italian Henri Bochefort or Mores. These conceptions are mostly wrong. I have seen a good deal of him, and my impressions are entirely different. He is a man of considerable culture, and a thinker, much more than a physical fighter. He is only 59 years of age, and most of his battles in earlier days were fought with the pen. And to write one must be able to think. He studied in Italy and in Switzerland, and took out his regular university degrees. Though a lion when fighting, he is as gentle as a child in his ordinary moods, gentlemanly, courteous, and an eloquentspeaker. , '" Early in youth, like so many others on account of his very generoua character, he was captivated by the Socialist doctrines. He became an eloquent teacher and propagandist of these doctrines, and was for this warned out of Switzerland. In Italy he became editor of the Socialist organ, Avanti, and was still editor when the war broke out. It was then that he suddenly and courageously abandoned the theories dear to his youth. He realised that Socialism was not the panacea he had imagined, and he had the courage to give op his views when he discovered they were false. He became a passionate patriot, volunteered his services, fought at the front, and was wounded. On his return he founded the Popolo d* Italia, in which he carried on a merciless campaign against Socialism and the Italian Socialist Pa Ou y tlining his policy to Mr Beaumont, Signor Mussolini said: "At the beginning our call was to combat. We had to fight to save the country. But fighting is not our main object. Our policy is one of construction. The Socialists aro for destruction. The Bolsheviks can destroy, but thev cannot build. Our constructive effort will be. first, to maintain the established Liberal institutions, to restore peace, order, and discipline, and to fin.sh with the stupid campaign of the hatred of classes. The Socialists live on this hatred, they preach 'it every day, they cannot subsist without it We also fight, but with us fighting is a transitory thin?. It is the exception, not the rule. Wuh the Socialists, on the contrary, to fight against the upper classes and against capital is the rule, not the exception. Our ideals arc entirely opposed to theirs. We shall not p«acl. the division of capital, but the div.rion of the products of labour and capital. In order to have something ro divide there must first be Labour and capital must work together harmoniously for this end. To create a state of war and permanent, antagonism between labour and capital, is stupid and idiotic. Either labour is ruined or capital is ruined, and whichever happens it means disaster and starvation as has Teen abundantly proved in*»£ " vou destrov or consume capital, it is true that vou ruin the capitalist, but you also rnfn the labourer. It is distress and shalfUke over the government When we do so we shall fight agains X Sao ideals. It is a warfare against fise ideals and deceptive doctrines that •now lies before us. We cannot give our «I to meet boldly the anarchist elements that ar? disorganising labour .destroying our industries, creating our financial diffin:J. ™d drying up our resources. A GovernnS mast ba* able to maintain S-Xr in the public services, and it can do 8 o onfy by enforcing obedience and di sSr e 'Mu B solini added that he was no bc S in the false Social.st doctrine St State monopolies and was for the Sgjition of all State monopolies, |