MUSSOLINI’S ITALY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 23

MUSSOLINI’S ITALY

NEW ZEALANDER’S VISIT IMPRESSIONS ON EVE OF WAR FORMIDABLE NATION The Impressions of a young New Zealand University student who spent a week in Northern Italy last month at the lime the Italian army was holding realistic manoeuvres In the Alps on a grand scale, under the eye of Signor Mussolini himself, confirm the opinion of Italy’s formidable preparations for war. By A. F. T. Chorlton. I came into Italy on foot over the high Theodule Pass at the base of the Matterhorn one evening towards the end of August, and next morning in a valley not far away saw part of the vast army Signor Mussolini had mobilised for manoeuvres in the mountains along the frontier. With aeroplanes; armoured cars, tanks and mechanised artillery and with soldiers who appeared to be exceedingly well trained and equipped it was an impressive spectacle. Some days later I was in Turin, one of the most important military centres of Italy, with its military colleges corresponding to Britain’s Camberley, Sandhurst and Woolwich, and there I saw a party of smart young officers fresh from their training, full of enthusiasm, as they were bidding farewell to friends before en training for Genoa to embark for Eritrea. The streets of Turin were full of young soldiers, so many, indeed, tljat they seemed to outnumber the ordinary citizens. Everywhere I went there were all the signs of a nation in arms on the eve of war. It came therefore as no surprise when less tbap a month later, while I was on the high seas bound for Australia on one of the Messageries boats from Marseilles, the news came through by French wireless that Italy had invaded Abyssinia,

Something of the spirit which had moved Italy to what is apparently a deliberate war I learned in long and frank discussions with an Italian* party from the Royal Italian Alpine Club with which I passed a few days climbing in the Italian Alps. Though animosity against England had already found vehement expression, they treated mo with great kindness as an Australian, for they draw a distinction between Britain and the dominions, as they do elsewhere on the Continent. I regret that here, as in France, nobody seemed to know anything about New Zealand, and, with the difficulty of language, explanations, I found, took too long and, when attempted, were seldom fully understood. It was different in Germany, where the young people appear to be very well up in history and geography. It was from these conversations with the Italian climbers, from the soldiers in their guard huts at night and from casual talks elsewhere that I gathered the idea that Italy is Mussolini and Mussolini is Italy. I got a picture of him sitting in the vast chamber of the Palazzo with the marble bust of the great Julius Ctesar on his right and a tapestry behind him illustrating one of Caesar’s triumphs, the leader no doubt dreaming of himself as another Caesar and modern Italy through his leadership reviving some of the glories of ancient j Rome. This is not mere fancy, for i Mussolini himself once said that | wherever Roman ruins marked Rome’s j triumph over desert sands there the | might of modern Italy would be felt. I dozen years, of propaganda of this sort j and the Italians, above all the young j who have grown up under Mussolini, t have come to believe that this is their I destiny. Young Italy has been brought ! up to fight for this ideal, and I must \ say I found at the time I was there no sign of the dissension that is sometimes said to exist in Italy. The whole people, heart and soul, seemed to be , •behind Mussolini and his policy. That i policy, as he expressed it just before I arrived in the country, was to make j Italy a nation of warriors. Even in l the schools the tiny children are taught , that “ JJorce speaks, force is holy,” j “ Sweet is the music of the machine gun,” and “Although words are beauti- | ful, cannons are more beautiful.” j Examples of what Mussolini has done I to organise Italy as a powerful, inde- j pendent nation I saw in the great hydroelectric stations in Northern Italy, male- | ing a coai-less country independent of j imports, chiefly British; magnificent I roads equally valuable for tourists to ■ motor along at speed and for the rapid transfer of troops; great factories and , a countryside cultivated to the last square inch. Much has been said about j the over-population of Italy, but I saw nothing like the signs of it such as one sees in the depressed areas of the North of England, where some men in their thirties have never done a tap of work, and the shabby groups round street corners tell their own tale. Italy is not a country with decaying industries and a large surplus population. Her industries have been booming with military preparations and there has been a shortage rather than a surplus of labour. I gathered that Mussolini’s encouragement of the birthrate was deliberate in view of tbe possible wastage of war. He calls for “ more workers and more soldiers.” The order is to have at least four children. Otherwise, he says, “our descendants will he isolated specimens in a sea of saffron and the white race will have to give way to the coloured.” To the coloured races the Italians have not the tolerant attitude of the* French, who freely intermingle with their coloured peoples on terms of equality under the’flag of the Republic, with its motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” “The Italians profess a civilising mission towards their coloured brethren in Africa. After Adowa is avenged they will peacefully, but firmly, “civilise” tbe Ethiopians. On board the ViHe d'Amiens on her voyage out to Australia we bad this on the wireless, a message from tbe Italian troops: TO OUR FRENCH COMRADES AND BROTHERS. Let It be known that we take up arms with a consciousness of serving a just cause, because the populations that wo wish to disarm and civilise, the people from whom we have put up with provocations and aggressions for 50 years, constitute neither a State nor a nation. What Italy hopes to do with Abyssinia, if she does succeed in conquering that country, I found from my friends in the mountains, was not so much colonisation, as exploitation, in the sense of making use of the natural wealth that ;i s supposed to exist in Abyssinia. It is ! difficult to think of Abyssinia as a field for white settlement. Natal and the Transvaal have the densest white populations in Africa, and if Italy could populate Abyssinia to the same extent i it would only mean taking 18 months’ 1 normal increase of population from Italy. ! There remains Italy’s attitude to such sanctions as may be imposed by the League. It is characteristic of Mussolini that he seems to have anticipated this, as other developments. Italy has been accumulating stoics of all kinds of necessaries for some years past and should not go short of any essential food supply or even of fuel. There are big stocks of metals, except copper, though double the normal quantity was imported in the first six months of this year. Four times the usual amount of lend was secured. Italy’s idea is to accomplish the virtual conquest of Abyssinia before tbe rainy season which begins next April, and she may have enough material of war and for the support of her population until that time. After that the

game may bo up, but Italy will fight hard. Mussolini has drilled his people well and his fighting forces are probably —at least Italians think so—the best equipped in the world to-day. Meanwhile there may be political developments in Europe which will upset all calculations. There is one thing, however, which differentiates the Italy of Mussolini from the Germany of Hitler and that is that if anything happens to Mussolini Italy will not survive as she is, but Germany will outlast Hitler. Hitler is the incarnation of Germany, but Italy is the creation of Mussolini. Without him her ambitions must fail.