TRANSATLANTIC RECORD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18207, 30 September 1933, Page 8

TRANSATLANTIC RECORD

ITALY ACCLAIMS REX’S PERFORMANCE THINK WORLD IMPRESSED ROME, Aug. 17. Capture of the Atlantic speed record by the Italian liner Rex was illumed here^vsterday as another victory hi the striving for national prestige which is the cornerstone of Premier Mussolini's plans for Italy. The newspapers declare that the same ideal of world recognition of Italy as a great; power which inspired 11 Duee to send General -Balbo and his Atlantic squaddoipon their flight to, America must bo credited as the driving force behind the accomplishments of the Rex r.tid the (tonti> di Savoia as leaders of the ■Fascist merchant marine.

Just as .‘Mussolini proclaimed that the great result of the Balbo flight was the fact that it made thousand* cry “Italia,” so the newspapers hail the Rex’s achievement as a ‘‘jxnvorful political force.” As one paper puts it.: “When the great steamship drops anchor in cosmopolitan ports, it is the .fatherland which is Brought both.re distant children; the faUherland which is becoming a nation that is taking its place in world competition.?/.

It. is believed here that the rest of the world must In- impressed with Italy, taking the place left vacant by Great Britain in the historic rivalry with Germany for t.rans-Atlantic speed . honors, and flattering contrasts are drawn .between the present prestige ,of the merchant marine and its pitiful state before the advent of Pascisai.

Mussolini is credited with overcoming great obstacles in creating such skips as'the Rex-. Those who were sceptical and held to the theory that smaller liners would be economically more sound for the Mediterranean trade :m* presumed to .be in the same uncomfortable position now as those who held reservations about the economics of the Balbo flight. They are looked upon as completely discomforted mi the theory that in the Fascist state “moral values come first, and prestige is the first of the moral values.”

. Tin- Giornale d'ltalia says: “The victory which to-day elevates the banner of our merchant marine is the advent of a 'vast world repercussion, which- is a moderate 'price of bur strength, courage and skill. ”