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THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 16, 1989
March of a Dictator-4 by FRANK
Forth from the clash
of war A Leader!
The fate of Mussolini, the black- smith's son, was forged upon the bloody anvil of War.
Benito Mussolini, corporal of Bersaglieri, rose out of the sequences of the great struggle; also Adolf Hitler, corporal of Bavarian Regiment of the line; also Josef Stalin, workman commander of the Guard.
the con-
as the
as
What had happened?
There are several
versions,
and
the basest springs easiest to the minds manifold and mouths of Mussolini's
was detractors. They say that he bought by French gold.
No evidence of this transaction bas Nor has venality and ever been adduced. commissar
ever been proved against this man Red
at any time in a life lived in the fier- cest glare of publicity.
Mussolini, Duce of Italian Socialism, started out, in the Great War as a pacifist. On July 27, the eve of Aus- tria's assault on Serbit, while thunder clouds gathered along the sultry Danube valley, Mussolini wrote the decisive editorial in Avanti! leading Italian Socialist newspaper.
It pro- claimed "OUR NEUTRALITY MUST BE ABSOLUTE!”
By October, 1914, editor Mussolini had begun to shift his ground on the France appeared in his war issue. columns as "martyred" and Belgium was listed as "ravished.". In the first days of November he resigned.
"How are you going to live?" de- manded Angelica Balabanov, his co- editor.
"Four shillings a day will do for Italy was under contract to fight me, and I can get it as a bricklayer alongsde Austria-Hungary and Ger- if no other way," he said, and swore.
that "I'll never write again. The utmost, however,
At least, be many. the Central Powers could hope for was assured of this--I'll never write one Italian neutrality. Already in Italy word against the Socialist Party!" powerful voices were raised in the Liberal camp for intervention against the, Austro-German bloc.
Mussolini, in Avanti! scornfully, both savagely, rejected the pleas of partisans. Imperialist Austria, which had gaoled him, he hated. But then Monarchist Italy had also gaoled him. And Republican France, sanguinary suppressor of the only Red experi- ment up to then-the Paris Commune of 1871 was capitalist, nationalist and militarist!
No! No! cried Mussnolini. Don't let any of the workers fall for this patriotic orgy of mass murder! Not only did he jibe at efforts to enlist sympathy for "poor little Belgium" and "gallant little Serbia." Musso- lini called on the Italian masses to make a positive revolutionary effort, not to halt the slaughter, but to re- canalise it against all governments. Let the downtrodden everywhere rise up against their oppressors and smite them! To arms, and set up the world dictatorship of the proletariat!
Four days later the apostle of world revolution threw in his lot with the Allies.
A few days later there appeared in the streets of Milan a new newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, "a Socialist daily." Editor: Benito Mussolini
In his initial editorial. Mussolini pro. affirmed his independence. He posed to remain in the Socialist Party But he procelaimed a new and terrify- ing doctrine as the touchstone of So- cialist idealism---WAR!
instant condemnation. At the Socialist The party conventicles rose up in Congress at Bologna on November 25. 1914, the ex-leader and ex-editor of Avantil was impeached. "Traitor! Judas!
What was the price!" were the cries that filled the hail.
Mussolini marched to the platform. They greeted him with howls and whistles. "Fine justice! Grand com- radeship," he jeered "More merciless. than the capitalist judges, who at least allow the prisoner a hearing! If I am pnworthy" —a roar of assent "expel me! But hear me?" Indescribable din.
But you cannot break met You can- "My not break my Socialist faith! twelve years of Socialism are part of me, they are rooted in my blood! A man must speak his mind or become I swear that from less than a man! this hour I will have no pity, no mercy, on those who are silent because they The capitalists do not are afraid! · love our plea for war. Why? They are fearful of the day that the workers hold bayonets in their hands
A hundred furious delegates leapt up to scream execration at tte speaker. With difficulty he was hustled from the rostrum.
At the door he wrenched himself free and yelled back, "Don't dare to believe that you can steal my Socialist faith by tearing up my card! Not even you can stop me fighting for the Revolu- tion!"
By an overwhelming vote he was expelled from the party.
*** * *
"I am expelled, but not tamed" he shouted
to his late comrades in his new newspaper. To the nation gen- erally he proclaimed: "All in Italy facts rather than mouthy theories hear the call of our who face hard, country. Internationalism is bankrupt. We have been fighting for a hollow fraul!" He still appealed, however, to the Socialists, and in the old lan- guage. On the title page of Il Popolo d'Italia flared the slogans: "Revolution. is an Idea which has bayonets!" "Who- ever has a weapon has bread!".
How did he find the money. to run Mussolini himself his newspaper? tells of his "hunger" for a newspaper Without that modern of his own. weapon, "ready to arm and to help, good for offence and defence," he felt. He lashed he was hamstrung. So, with a few. He stood his ground.
"You friends, he says, a council of war was them with contempt and insult.
You hate held. They took some small garret- think you are killing me? me, yes—because you love mo still like rooms in Milan near a printing werks. The printer agreed to publish cheaply the truths that Mussolini was bursting to deliver to the Italian peo ple. Thus the venture began.
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A weekly contract was signed with the printer. According to Mussolini it was a contract that was in weekly dan- ger of being smashed for the sake of a few pounds. But, in any case, says Mussolini "To me money is detes- table; what it may do is sometimes beautiful and sometimes noble."
This particular money, whatever its amount or origin, did more per pound than any of the millions subsequently poured out in propagandist purposes. to bring Italy into the war. Naturally the adherence of Mussolini to- the Allied cause was acclaimed in the French Chamber of Deputies, among others by Marcel Cachin, present leader of the French Communists! -
Already an, Italian Legion was fighting for France on the Western Front. Two nephews ́of Garibaldi fell in the Argonne battle. They were brought home to be buried in Rome amid tremendous scenes The Red Shirt of the Liberator was brought forth again and the unity of France and Italy later Latin, nations, was once more proclaimed.
Mussolini carried on his new patriotic campaign, as energetically as his former pacifist crusade. He now got into trouble with-the police for domanding war! He fought a dugl with a Socialist leader, and another, with a general. He joined forces, with | Gabriele D'Amunzio, "In endless: agitation. In Milan, even an abortiva upcising, was staged in..
Athiest, on May 24, 1916, “Italy. declared war? Like Hitler, who fell on his knees and thanked God for the opportunity of fighting, Mussolini was overwhelmed with joy and triumph.
OWEN
Italian Alpine troops during the Great War.
.
Mussolini rushed to the recruiting offices to offer service as a volunteer. He was told that as a conscript he must wait his turn to be called up. He fretted and fumed.
relieved on His impatience was September 1, 1915. He was radiant! "For that very day, that I put on again the, glorious greygreen uniform.. of the Bersaglieri-the finest shock troops of Italy-1 resolved to be the best soldier possible ebedient, faithful. to discipline, stretching myself with all my might to the fulfilment of my Almost at once he found him- duty." self in the rock trenches of the High Alps.
Cold, rain, mud, hunger! Shortage He of equipment, scarcity of shells! revelled in his hardships, and when things were quiet in his sector he stirred the enemy up on his own ac- count, provoking instant reprisal. He was not loved by his comrades.
But he was promoted to corporal of and cited as "first in operations courage and audacity." He was his own newspaper's trench correspondent and he made himself into a symbol of Italian enthusiasm for war.. Natur ally, he has done the best for himself And his de- in reporting his war. tractors have done their worst. truth appears that Mussolini was good soldier.
The
a
On the morning of February 22, 1917, he and 20 comrades were blown "P by the explosion of one of their own grenades. Four were killed, and
(Continued on Page 21)
Mussollal, photographed in 1917, when, aged 84, he was a corporal of Bersaglieri,