DICTATORSHIPS ARE BUT A PASSING PHENOMENON.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 490, 27 June 1932, Page 6

DICTATORSHIPS ARE BUT A PASSING PHENOMENON.

To-day’s Special Article

Count Carlo Sforza Reviews the System as it Appears in Europe.

He who would study dictatorships in these years will not suffer from lack of material. Soviet Russia and Italy are the classic examples of our time, but Turkey, Hungary, Poland and Jugo-Slavia are only less conspicuous, and de Rivera (under King Alfonso) ruled Spain for seven years. It is little wonder that it has became a fashion in democratic countries, including our own, to sigh for a dictator, for of dictatorships we commonly hear only what is favourable. Thus the whole world was surprised when de Rivera, whose rule was supposed to have regenerated Spain, fell so hard that he dragged the Monarchy with him.

QNE explanation, Count Sforza* would have us believe, is that ’ dictatorships are “ past masters all in the art of selfadvertisement.” This distinguished, learned and cultured Liberal believes and proclaims with all the ardour of. a Latin that dictatorships are but “ a passing phenomenon of political neurasthenia.” And if it be contended that some of the dictatorships have the appearance of permanency he is not dismayed, for did not the coup d’etat of Louis-Napoleon last eighteen years, until it disappeared ‘“at Sedan, in mud and blood ”? It may be supposed, and rightly, that Count Sforza has nothing to say in favour of Mussolini’s regime, and he devotes much space to a refutation of some of the current beliefs concerning the Fascist achievements. JThus it is believed that the Fascists saved Italy from Bolshevism, but “one year after the occupation of the factories (by a section of. the workers) and 15 months before the ‘ march on Rome ’ ” Mussolini himself wrote in his journal, “ To say that a Bolshevist danger still exists in Italy means taking base fears for reality. Bolshevism is overthrown.” But in Italian public libraries to-day it is forbidden to read the files of that journal! General Serfdom. Of the Soviet dictatorship we have heard ad nauseam; Count Sforza thinks most of the moral sacrifices of the people, “ the new menacing form of general serfdom which cannot fail to produce a ghastly moral degradation.” It is more interesting to read of a less-known republic—the only one, in Count Sforza’s view, that appears to have been a success—Turkey.

cess as a statesman has been equally great. The author says the rise of a real Turkish patriotism was a genuine happening, devoid of artificial characteristics, and that Kemal has remained faithful to a policy of renouncing all idea of Turkish domination over non-Turkish peoples. Further than that, he has stuck to all the external forms of a republican democracy. It is, indeed, surprising to read this Italian’s dictum (based on personal experience) that of all the “ backward ” peoples “ the Turks are the people most essentially democratic.” The Worst Evils. Count Sforza does not deny that the Parliamentary system often works badly, but the reason is that Governments and Parliaments nowadays are forced to concern themselves with a whole system of economic as well as political laws. Anyone who looks back on the business/ done, or attempted, by the New Zealand Parliaments since the war will find much truth in this assertion. The remedy he advocates is complete decentralisation (for example, in England a supreme- House of Commons, with local assemblies for England, Scotland and Wales). The worst evils of dictatorships are inconspicuous. They leave no room for toleration or even the discussion of ideas other than official ideas, and soon the only good citizen is the servile one. When a Government is found which labels those who oppose it with reasoned arguments as “ enemies of the State,” that Government, whatever form it may assume, is dictatorial in character, and soon will become so in its aims. *“ European Dictatorships,” by Count Carlo Sforza (Allen and Unwin).

New Zealanders know something of Kemal Pasha’s prowess as a soldier, but his sue-