THE CHINA-MAIL, FEBRUARY 18, 1939
March of a Dictator-6 by FRANK
On
OWEN
My Government Policy to GOVERN!
In Mussolini's first Ministry were duty," Mussolini promised. The chief lished. Certainly he profited nothing out of it. The consequences of it to four Fascists, two Service officers, one assassin was arrested the same night. Nationalist, two National Liberals, two A furious outcry arose. Newspaper him were damaging and very nearly Catholies, two Democrats, one Social; denunciation, protests, telegrams, fell deadly.
like hail about the Head of the Govern- But even this appalling affair did not He writes: "It was the last gener- ment. Mussolini was calm, unusually put an end to the violent blood-letting Parliament he pro- which marked the first ten years of ous gesture I ever made towards the conciliatory. In
ist.
old Italian ring of parties and politi- claimed again that the law would be Mussolini's rule. cians."
淼 * *
Five
enforced, the guilty punished, the crime. avenged. Indeed, he asked, who, after the victim, suffers most by such a dia- bolical wickedness? The Head of the
Government himself!
***
The Opposition took heart..
Mussolini moyed to strengthen his great parties, representing a majority
power. The blackshirt militia were in Parliament and country, vehemently criticised Mussolini. Eighty per cent,
It was true. The regime was shaken permitted the run of the streets again, of Italy's Press was anti-Fascist. The from top to toe. General De Bono, fu- the police winked. By decree a Press Becco Giallo, Yellow Beak, Rome's ture invader of Abyssinia, who was censorship was imposed-frat step to- the Mussolini marched on Rome October 28, 1922. The astonishing leading comic newspaper put on 50,000 then chief of Rome police, Finzi, Home wards its final fate to become
Secretary, and Cesare Rossi, were all gramophone of Government.
They were
The Freemasons, once the focus of thing is that he did not set up his circulation laughing at him.
The Fascist reprisal was left to the accused of complicity.
the movement for Italian liberation Fascist Dictatorship, until two years
storm troop-militia. They clubbed and examined.
the more had passed.
burned. The agitation did not subside. The from the Austrian Empire, were He threatened. As Premier, he went castor-oiled their critics and down to Parliament, where he did not their offices, A new orgy of lawless- Opposition believed that at last they next to feel the screw. They retained had got hold of a rod for Mussolini. many of their old liberal ideas. Musso- command a party majority. He said: ness swept the land.
It found its peak in the murder of Act of incredible folly-they withdrew lini had hated them even as a Socialist. "I could abuse my victory if I chose.
from Parliament! They conceived this The Blackshirts were given first crack Matteotti..
at them as overy now and then the I refuse. With my 300,000 young men, Giacomo Matteotti, the Socialist, was gesture to be Dignity. It was Abdica radical Nazi Sturm-troops are "appeas- armed in every way, resolved to do
ed" with a bite at the Jews, American anything and, so to speak, mystically the son of rich parents, a university
Freemasons reckon that' a thousand
tion.
In December a second blow fell upon
ready to carry out my orders, I could man, doctor of law, a fine mind, pre- Mussolini.. Cesare Rosai, on his own Masonic lodges and clubs were burned
I
cialist leader.
subsequent admission, closely concern-
chastise all who have defamed and at- cise and logical; in political standing tempted to throw Fascism in the mud and in culture he would rank in our
I could make of this hall, low day with Leon Blum, the French So- ed in this abominable murder, had gone into hiding. By way of political black- and grey, a bivouac of corpses
mail he had written a "confession," could nail up the doors of this Parlia ment and establish a Government ex- clusively of Fascists. But I have not so willed it; at least, not for the pre Bond!"
Challenged publicly: "What is your programme?" he replied: "Ta Govern!" Asked privately: What is the chief problem of Fascism?"
he answered: "Its duration!"
Why Mussolini's moderation? Here is the answer::
*
"I did not forget that I had a Par- liament on my hands; a Chamber of Deputies of sullen mind, ready to lay 'old traps for me, accustomed to an tradition of intrigue, full of grudges, repressed only by fear.
He had a sharp eye and a sharper tongue. About the spring of 1024 he began to ply Mussolini with questions. in the Chamber, With a howl of gice
the hostile Press joined in the hunt.
On June 6 five men called on Mat- teotti as he came out of his house, One of them struck him to the ground. Others hit him in the face as he lay. They picked him up and flung him into their car. again.
Matteotti was never seen
Rumours of kidnapping, murder, and later, of mutilation, ran through th city. Grave unrest was dominant, An uprising was feared. The Fascist mili- tia were mobilised.
once
The Crown looked on to see what I Next day, Cesare Rossi, head of the would do. The Pope followed events Italian Press office, reported to Masso-.. with anxiety. The other nations look- lini that Matteotti had indeed been ed at our Revolution with suspicion, if taken for a ride. Mussolini at not hostility. Foreign banks were requested Signora Matteotti to come eager for news. It was indispensable to see him. When she appeared he She wept. first of all to give the impression of stood up in silent salute. stability to the new regime."
"The Government will do its
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Power.
or broken up in this pogrom.
ters
Grand Master-and Grand Past Mas- were deported or imprisoned. Mussolini charged the entire institution with graft and blackmail, and declared that it intrigued against the Govern ment. It was dissolved. When the Freemasons demonstrated against this decree, as in Florence, official police action was launched against them and in the fighting many were killed.
In the same tactic of crushing down all opposition was the disbandment of the Royal Guards a semi-military formation set up by former Liberal ..Governments to offset the Carabinieri
who had a long record of reaction much as the Spanish Republicans in 1936 created the Assault Guard to match the old Civil Guard. The. Royal Guards of Italy were not dismissed without a struggle.
Swiftly in succession came the clean- up of the Mafia, the secret society the blackmailing racket which was father and mother of the American gang business with its traditional Ita- lian bosses such as Al Capone Then a secret police, the O.V.R.A., Italian counterpart of the Russian ́O.G.P.U. and model for the future Nazi Gestapo. Mussolini stamped upon all organisa- tions except his own.
As power passed to him so did peril Mussolini became the target for in- numerable bullets.
*
an
declaring that Mussolini himself had an "ambiguous situation" in relation to the crime. Cesare Rossi also listed various other assaults committed by As early as 1922, at the Lausanne strong-arm squads, sometimes result- Conference, American reporter He ing in grave wounds, sometimes in found Mussolini loading a gun. death, which he charged to Mussolini. asked this unusual politician what he
This gangster's testimony has re- was preparing to do. ceived in responsible quarters the value which it deserves. Mussolini, that it was coming out, published it in advance, thereby showing once .more. that he was an excellent fournalist as. well as a shrewd politician.
aware
The later history of Rossi is worth a paragraph He kept clear of Ital until in 1930 he was foolish enough to
un-
"Why, shoot first," said Mussolini, evidently astonished. "Shoot whom?”
"The fellow who is trying to shoot me!" ·F...
He was already convinced that Dic- tators were certain to be assassinated unless they themselves, got off their bullets in good time.
Early in 1928 a sentry fired at Mus- solini.
Later in the same year Mussolini's chauffeur was killed by a bullet direct- ed from one of the houses on the hill above the Colosseum, The unfortunate chauffeur was sitting by his side Mussolini, drove the car.
88.
In 1924 his entourage were greeted with a volley as they returned to Rome
by accident without him.
venture near the Swiss Italian fron- tier, it is said, in company with an at tractive lady. He was seized and gaol- ed. In his cell he wrote a second "con- fession," withdrawing the first, and he is-still working out his sentence.
Dumini, chief of the Matteotti mur-, derers, was put on trial with the rest of his gang He behaved with bounded insolence and with two others was found guilty of unintentional homi- cide and sentenced to; five years.^ Domini hereafter disappears from his- tory. General de Bono stood trial be- fore the Senate and was acquitted for lack of evidence against him. Other high Fascists were acquitted on the In 1926 the Hon. Violet Gibson shot grounds that they ordered the kidnap at Mussolini as he emerged from the If this was ping of Matteotti but not his murder, Congress of Surgeona.
Mussolini has been accused a thou also staged the producer cut his mar- sand times, and in a thousand tongues gins fine. The Duce was hit in of this crime. Neither his responsibi, nose. lity nor his complicity has been estab
(Continued on Page 11)
In 1925, Armistice Day, Signor Zam- broni. a Socialist and Freemason, was discovered at a window looking down on the ceremony with a fine-sighted Austrian rifle in his hands.
the