NATIONAL REGENERATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3959, 28 January 1930, Page 71

NATIONAL REGENERATION.

ITALY UNDER MUSSOLINI. AUCKLAND, January 22. The great progress of Italy, under Signor Mussolini, impressed Mr F. Milner, who visited that country in the course of a world tour which concluded with his arrival at Auckland by the Ulimaroa. Mr Milner said he had entered Italy with the preconceived idea that Mussolini’s regime was a spiritual blight and that its blessings were due to journalistic sycophancy or interested “ eyewash.” A study of conditions there, however, made him realise that Mussolini, by the force of a compelling personal magnetism, had really accomplished a great work of national regeneration. The financial condition of Italy was sound. Agricultural settlement and development were proceed ing apace. Works of irrigation and reclamation and fertilisation were a sound earnest of an effective programme. Emigration was discouraged, yet the unemployment was relatively insignificant. There were no dislocations of industry. The revival of old historical ceremonies made for a continuity of national tradition. The manufacturing industries of Italy had been fostered at an amazing rate. Everywhere one was made conscious of the henefieient effects of a purposeful individualistic regime over a people who never in the past had realised democracy, and were naturally prone to the acceptance of dictation. The impotence of the preceding regime and its vulnerability to Communistic penetration acted as a splendid foil to the organised efficiency of the present benevolent autocracy.