CATCHING THEM YOUNG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19842, 17 May 1927, Page 9

CATCHING THEM YOUNG

THE FASCIST LEVY 80,000 NEW MILITIAMEN. THE BOYS’ BRIGADES. Writing under date April 2, our London correspondent gives an account of the ceremonial celebrations in Italy on the previous Sunday (March 27) of the eighth anniversary of the foundation of the first Fascist group at Milan. The Fascist year (our correspondent writes) is thick w/th anniversary dates which at each recurrence necessitate imposing processions, elevating speeches, appreciative articles. And now that the financial pinch is being felt too severely to permit of decorations and illuminations on a grand scale; now that the general Italian public has unmistakably shown its boredom with “choreography,” any description could only be frigid in comparison with those which were faithfully given of similar events a few months ago. But if the ceremony could safely be overlooked as a spectacle, it deserves notice for the formality of the “Fascist Levy” which was carried out for the first time, and will bo repeated every year on the same date. The “Levy” consists of the drafting into the Fascist Militia proper of all those members of the Senior Boys’ Brigade (Avanguardia) who during the year have attained the age of 18. At the same time there is a corresponding transference of 14-year-olds from the Junior Boys’ Brigade (Balilla) to the Avanguardia. According to recent statements, Avanguardia and Balilla together now comprise 600,000 boys; while 80,000 were drafted into the Militia on Sunday, receiving in token the symbolic rifle, which the Avanguardista is not allowed to touch. The total Militia strength is now apparently about 300,000, or roughly the same as the army peace strength; an annual addition of 80,000 without, apparently, and regular corresponding superannuation at the other end, will in a few years very considerably swell this number.

The Oath of the Fascist Militia. The Militia is a tremendously important factor in Italian politics; the deciding factor, indeed, so long as the army remains inactive. For the Militia is both a Fisch t party organ and a State organ. The State pays: the party is served. This apparent anomaly used to be the subject of interminable discourses on the part of “Liberal” wellwishers to Fascism of the Orlando and Salandra type. “Just dissolve your Militia,” these dear old gentlemen used to say, “and you shall have the whole weight of our moral support.” The Fascists, however, not without reason, considered the muskets of the Militia a more certain asset: and the little constitutional difficulty was quickly cleared up by the enunciation of the convenient doctrine, “The Fascist party is the State,” which led ultimately to Signor Farinacci’s identification of anti-Fascism with common crime, as which it is now, if manifested in any public way, punishable and punished. The only concession made to the old gentlemen was the oath, of obedience sworn to King Victor Emmanuel by the Generalissimo of the Militia, who is at the present moment Signor Mussolini. The new recruits to the Militia took the oath: “I swear to abey without discussion the orders of the Duce and to serve with might and main, if need be at the cost of my blood, the cause of the Fascist Revolution.” At the Rome ceremony the Generalissimo concluded his harangue with the words: “For the King, for Italy, for Fascism©, Hurrah!” to which the new recruits responded: “For the Duce, Hurrah!” If ever the monarchical Constitution in Italy were brought into question in the form of a clash between Crown and Duce (a possibility of which the - discussion is severely discouraged in Italy to-day, but despite the discouragement continually rages), one rather supposes that loyalty to an individual would outweigh loyalty to a dynasty. Meanwhile, so long n.s Crown and Duco act together, the existence of the Militia, whose members have to respond to an emergency convocation without delay or question, on pain of the severest penalties, renders any modification of the present political situation, or, rather, any formal and visible modification, a very remote possibility. .. “Be a Roman!” The general tone of the speeches addressed in the principal towns to the new recruits was elevating and serious, rather than warlike. Some of the speeches might have been made by Sir R. Baden-Powell at a Scout jamboree. Simplicity of living, manliness, and the importance of behaving like a Roman (which amounts, ideally, to much the same as being a Briton) were inculcated from scores of platforms. The consignment of the rifle, however, called for references to Vittorio Veneto and to Italy’s Imperial future of a necessarily military nature. And such a writer as Senator Morelli, of the Milan Socelo, dedicated the following invocation to international hatred and suspicion to the youth of Italy:— Never forget your rifle, at work or at play (he admonished). Let your spirit be ever at arms. Do not listen to the false doctrines of humanitarian brotherhood or universal friendship, which are intended simply to weaken your spirit and your Italain consciousness. For you there is but one true doctrine —the need to make Italy greater and for ever greater! Most of the speakers and writers made, on the contrary, an exemplary attempt to place the emphasis on love of Italy rather than hatred of the foreigner; so much so that one suspects an order to go easy with the adjectives was among the private instructions to local chieftains issued on Saturday. It would not be convenient at a moment when international relations are, according to the Duce’s Own definition, “delicate,” to have too many quotably bellicose voices choiring in Italy on a single occasion.