PROSPERITY OF ITALY

Southland Times, Issue 20202, 13 June 1927, Page 3

PROSPERITY OF ITALY

THE WORK OF MUSSOLINI. BELOVED BY THE PEOPLE. WELFARE OF POORER CLASSES. A SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION. Guided by the strong hand of Mussolini, Italy has now reached a stage of industrial activity and prosperity and her people are filled with a feeling of national pride, according to Mr. Priamo Bruzzo, a business man of Milan, who is visiting Auckland, states the New Zealand Herald. Mr. Bruzzo says he finds it hard to understand occasional statements made by those who have visited Italy to the effect that the people are tiring of the regime of Mussolini. Mr. Bruzzo was in Italy in March and was struck by the eagerness of the people to work. Mussolini had explained that unless everyone set to work the nation would be submerged in the face of postwar competition and consequently unemployment was now practically unknown. The lira was improving every day, exports were increasing, and the feeling was abroad that the work was being done for national progress. “To-day Mussolini is so popular that I believe the people would gladly lay down their lives for him,” Mr. Bruzzo said. “One of his latest acts was to send letters to the prefects of the different provinces telling them they must look after the welfare of the poorer classes above all else. The result is that the higher, middle, and lower classes are co-operating for the good of all. Mussolini has convinced employers that it is to their benefit to see their employees are paid well, fed well, and clothed well. Capital and labour are working in harmony. Workmen have recently been granted 15 days’ holiday a year, something previously unheard of.” PROBLEM OF POPULATION. The outcome of Mussolini’s consideration for the working classes was the admission of a labour leader that Mussolini had done all the Socialist party could hope to do. Until last year he had opposition, but this had now completely dissolved. “In her industries Italy is badly handicapped by the absence of natural deposits of coal and oil, and supplies have to be imported,” said Mr Bruzzo. “In Northern Italy the railways have now been electrif- , ied to save importation of coal. Mussolini has advocated intensive cultivation and large properties are being subdivided and the day of large estates is passing. We import 40 per cent, of our foodstuffs and it is essential for the economic stability of the country that this should be counterbalanced by exports.” One of the great problems facing Italy was her ever-increasing population, the birth-rate being estimated at 600,000 a year. It would be necessary for Italy to push for a revision of the Treaty of Versailles to find an outlet for some of her people. “We do not believe in birth-control; it is considered immoral,” Mr. Bruzzo said. “Mussolini is conducting a campaign against all low moral customs. A law’ has been passed confining money-lenders; prostitution has been stopped, and one would not know the Italy to-day compared with the Italy of a few years ago. MILITARY ORGANISATION. “When I was abroad a few years ago l I was ashamed to admit I was an Italian, but to-day I am proud to admit it. Mussolini has increased the possibilities of classical study, and has been responsible for the formation of industrial schools. He interests himself in hundreds of movements, and is beloved by the people.” Italy was becoming the best-organised military nation in Europe. Discipline was not enforced, but instilled. There was a standing army of Fascists and a spiritual army of three and a-half million Fascists who would fight the minute they ,»ere called upon to do so. Fascists were willing to curtail their pleasures to secure money to further their objects and cases had been reported of men who had gone without cigarettes and wine for two weeks. “Fascism has had its critics but it is doing wonderful things in Italy,” Mr. Bruzzo said. “Ninty-nine per cent of the people are Fascists. The very word Fascist derived from the word fascio, meaning a bundle, spell§ co-operation. It is a militaristic movement and in the trenches its followers were the Fasci di Combattimento—the fighting Fascists. And, by the way, the world does not seem to realise that 500,000 men of Italy were killed during the Great War. FRIENDLINESS TOWARD BRITAIN. “People often ask what would happen to Italy if Mussolini were killed. Italy has been given such a start by the man that I think she would continue to go ahead. During the past six years wonders have been worked and the people recognise it is for their good. I feel sure new leaders would rise up to take his place. Our feelings toward Great Britain are the friendliest and any cloud between the two nations has dispersed. We recognise England as the greatest and best manufacturing country of the world, and we feel that your great statesmen, Sir Austen Chamberlain and Mr Winston Churchill, understand our problems and aims.” As a brother officer in the Italian forces during the war, Mr. Bruzzo met Mussolini and had an opportunity of coming to know the man. He had the soul of a child and the will of a Napoleon. He was the hard-est-worked man in Italy, commencing his duties early in the morning, and often continuing until midnight. When time permitted he would gallop in the parks of Rome —his favourite pastime—or would listen to symphonic music.