MUSSOLINI’S CREED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22126, 2 December 1933, Page 4

MUSSOLINI’S CREED

" The Political and Social Doctrine ot Fascism.” By Benito Mussolini. Translated by Jane Soames. Day-to-Day Pamphlets, No, 18. London: Hogarth Press. (Is 9d net.) Signor Mussolini’s only statement of the philosophic basis of Fascism, which appeared last year as an in the “ Enciclopedia Italiana,” ’ does little to controvert Mr Baldwin’s recent pronouncement that this form of government would never suit the British peoples. It is an arrogant, militaristic doctrine that the Duce expounds: “For Fascism the growth of empire, that is to say, the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialjst; any renunciation is a sign of decay and of death.” And,- refuting pacifism, he says: ' War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision — the alternative of life and death. Thus a doctrine which is founded upon the harmful postulate of peace is hostile to Fascism. The Fascist, says the Duce, loves life, but conceives of it as a duty, a struggle, a conquest, to be lived fully for the benefit of those who come after; Fascism combats “ the- whole complex system of democratic ideology, and repudiates it, whether in its theoretical premises or m its practical applications”; and Fascism “denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society.” This brief statement, more uncompromising than most of Mussolini’s speeches for international consumption, should have an enlightening effect upon disgruntled persons within the Empire who pine for a dictatorship. M G.

Professorial Negligence A London correspondent relates the latest tale of professorial negligence:— An official in one of London s suburban libraries has been mildly pained to discover that a volume returned by a borrower contained as a book marker a cold and flaccid slice of fried bacon. He instituted inquiries, and discovered that the borrower, after reading the_ book, and before returning it. had lent it to ,a professorial friend who is notoriously absent-minded, and has the habit of reading at breakfast time. Researches have not been pushed far enough to discover whether the professor ate. in his fit of abstraction, the original bookmarker.