The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1943 MUSSOLINI’S FALL ANALYSED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 219, 16 September 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1943 MUSSOLINI’S FALL ANALYSED

fell because he was not a Fascist. The Fascist is one who believes in national unity. In the ancient emblem of the fascis there is evidence that unity is strength. Mussolini took that ancient symbol and made it the excuse for suppressing all his opponents. The nation was to operate to the beat of the conductor. The idea is a good one, for every nation, like a chain, is only as strong as its weakest link. Where Mussolini failed was that he made the mistake of regarding himself not as one stick in the bunch but as all of them. He therefore never intended to build a Fascist State, despite his proclamations that such was his intention. He was concerned only to establish a personal rule which was the antithesis of the Fascist idea.

Mr. Saville Tt. Davis, who was the Christian Science Monitor’s correspondent in Rome until 1841, when Italy entered the war, puts the position thus: “Where Fascism called for the loyal cooperation of many groups Mussolini broke it up. When Fascism required stable party leadership by trained technicians, Mussolini changed the guard constantly. Where Fascism needed an expert civil service of its own to administer the so-called Fascist life of the nation, Mussolini feared it would become too powerful and avoided it. Where Fascism needed the utmost professional confidence in the army, Mussolini deliberately kept the army torn by strife with the politically-minded Fascist militia, lest it wax too powerful.

“Finally when Fascism needed a strong industrial structure behind it to produce the sinews of war. Mussolini conceived the political device of the Corporate State as a means of controlling all appointments to industrial associations, and of moving men in and out, in meaningless succession, so that none should become real leaders. And industry lacked the rudiments of cohesion. Mussolini's personal rule, therefore, was the negation of that organised efficiency which Fascism must have in order to be the military super state which Mussolini claimed it to be.”

The I ascist Party indeed was capable of registering some 13,000,000 of members, or roughly every breadwinner. This gave the appearance of unity, but it was a unity brought about not by inner conviction but by economic compulsion, for unless one was a member of the party his means of joining a guild were indeed slender. How many Italians resented this condition into which they were compelled to subject themselves can be gauged from the fact that as soon as Mussolini was voted out of his leadership off came the insignia of party membership, out went the party leaders, down went the army, and the navy was surrendered to the British’ Italy has been defeated from within. Mussolini’s personal rule has dissolved. It matters not now whether the Germans have “rescued” him, nor does it matter whether he is again placed at the head o/a “Government.” He has nothing on which to build because he has already destroyed all the material out of which a building could have been constructed.