MUSSOLINI.

Southland Times, Issue 21089, 22 May 1930, Page 3

MUSSOLINI.

To the Editor. Sir,—On account of news frolfi Italy being strictly censored it is very difficult to obtain really reliable information regard-* ing the Duce and the state of affairs under his dictatorship. The little scraps of news that find a place in our daily Press do not place Mussolini in such a light as to commend his utterances to the favourable judgment of the Anglo-Saxon race. Not long ago he was reported to say that in the next war which he anticipated would take place in 1935 or 1940 Italy .would darken the heavens with his fighting air machinte. * It appears that the last war has taught him no lessons at all concerning the futility of war. Apparently Mussolini is of the. opinion that something can be gained by killing a large number of people —that killing and not kindness is the way to settle grievances and to overcome differences of an international character.

Whether this man who presides over Italy for the moment is consumed with his own importance; or he is truckling to the psychology of the crowd; or assuming a threatening attitude to his neighbour— France—one cannot say. But so long as he remains in the position he occupies with a saucer-like mind, Mussolini must be regarded as a danger mark in Europe. This fact-'stands out pre-eminently that no matter how clever a man may be it is unwise to invest him with unlimited power or to allow any man to usurp ]>ower of life and death over his fellows.

Italy has been suitable soil for this kind of thjng —dictatorship for many generations. How long it will last one cannot say! Persecution, brutality, and torture arc being practised under the present regime. Three exiles recently escaped from Devil’s Island and the accounts rendered by .them of the sufferings they have endured, to find a parallel one must go back to the worst period of the dark ages. When one reads of the little good that has been done in Italy during-the last few years which some travellers affirm, this little good must be discounted by the immense harm done which outweighs, all else. And such despotism is dear at any price.—l am, etc. MAB.