Italy’s Plight

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22044, 18 August 1941, Page 4

Italy’s Plight

DEPORTS from Italy indicate the unhappy plight H of a country coming more and more under Nazi domination. Practically the whole of her airports are now under the control of German aviation officers, while her transport system is being geared to refurbish and sustain the German attack on the Russian front. First begun secretly, and now openly, this systematic exploitation of Italy which has been going on for months, has now reached such proportions that the country is receiving treatment little different from that given to many of the subjected nations. She is receiving less consideration than that at present being given to France for the obvious reason that even a defeated France is still a powerful factor in European politics. Hitler knows that any “new order” he may envisage for Europe would not succeed without the inclusion of France, and if France is to be co-opted into any such scheme then she must be wooed with at least some semblance of the dignity befitting a great nation.

Mussolini has often professed to be a disciple of Machiavelli whose philosophy he has long admired. But there are some tenets of this cynical philosopher wjiich the Italian dictator must have forgotten. For example, he forgot the warning about under-estimating the strength of one's enemies and he forgot the advice of taking care to be on the winning side. Further, he forgot this astute advice: “A prince,’’ Machiavelli wrote, “ought to take Care never to make an alliance with one more powerful than himself for the purpose of attacking others. . . because if he conquers, you are at his discretion.” Mussolini took the gambler’s chance. He believed that it would be a short war. Since entering the war Italy has seen the major part of her fleet destroyed; her armies suffer humiliating defeats and her laboriously acquired African Empire shattered. Mussolini was too cunning, and the price of his craftiness has been to place his unhappy country into the hands of unscrupulous foreign opportunists who know ho mercy and acknowledge no friends.