The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1934. THE DUCE BELLICOSE

Southland Times, Issue 22464, 29 October 1934, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1934. THE DUCE BELLICOSE

At the close of the Italian Army manoeuvres on August 24, Mussolini spoke to a gathering of Italian generals and foreign military attaches. His speech was not confined to military technicalities. It contained passages that suggested a return to the days when II Duce was in his most bellicose moods. Some of these passages were:

Nobody in present-day Europe deliberately seeks war; . . . none the less, war is a possibility and may break out unexpectedly from one minute to the next. In Europe, at the end of July, there arose, unforeseen and dramatically, a situation recalling in a particular manner 1914. It may be added that, if we had not as a precautionary step promptly sent divisions to our eastern and northern frontiers, there would have been a danger of those complications arising which, at a given moment, are not to be solved except by armed intervention. ... It is therefore necessary to be prepared for war not to-morrow, but to-day. We are becoming—and shall become so increasingly because this is our desire—a military nation. A militaristic nation, I will add. . . . To complete the picture, warlike. . . . War has been described as the court of appeal between nations. . . . Nothing has yet been discovered which can take the place of that which is the clearest, most tangible and most decisive expression of the strength of an entire people—that is to say, the size, the prestige, the power of its arms on land, on the sea, and in the air.

Undoubtedly Mussolini’s speech was directed at Germany and possibly at Yugoslavia, but there were other references in the speech which made it fairly clear that he wished to exclude France. Mussolini is convinced that Italy’s show of force after the assassination of Dr. Dollfuss prevented any extension of the trouble; in other words, that it prevented any incursion by German Nazis into Austria. But the most interesting, the most significant fact in connection with this speech is that it was intended for foreign consumption. All the passages above quoted were originally “released” only for publication abroad, and were not at first allowed to appear in the Italian Press. In consequence of the sensation abroad which the foreign edition of the speech produced, the full text was later published at Rome. But the original differentiation between the home and foreign versions represents the Italian Government’s intentions, and the difference is illuminating. In itself, of

course, the differential editing of the home and foreign versions of the same speech is an old Mussolinian device; but it is noteworthy that hitherto the home version has always been bellicose while the foreign version has been pacific. This time, the usual practice has been reversed. Does this mean that Signor Mussolini intended to give a serious warning to Germany and Jugoslavia without generating a corresponding wave of chauvinism in Italy? If so, we may perhaps conclude that, while Signor Mussolini regards the European situation as grave, he is still working—and hoping—for peace. Mussolini is convinced that the only way to check the Hitlerites is to show them that any attempt to cross the frontiers to secure a coup d’etat will bring a speedy and vigorous reaction. Certainly his decisive action was effective in July, and it is clear that since then Germany has left Austria alone. All the same these bellicose utterances are disturbing, and they must be regarded as dangerous.