13 JANUARY 1923, Page 2

Signor Mussolini seems to be getting down to work in

Rome. He has suppressed twenty-one Commissions of 832 members in the Ministry of Agriculture alone, and 789 employees in the Ministry of Public Instruction. In the provinces the new Fascisti police appeared in many of the big towns, and in Leghorn and Milan round-ups of Communists and other undesirables were under- taken. The army is being completely reorganized by General Diaz on a peace basis of 450,000 men and a duration of service of eighteen months. Mean- while, there are certain signs that a line of cleavage is appearing within Fascismo itself, between Signor. Mussolini, with his Socialist memories, followed by the more progressive elements and the solid group of capital- ists who work almost entirely for their own interests and in whose hands the movement originally was. Signor Mussolini has been saying that had the Fascist revolution been delayed only two months Italy would have been in chaos ; but the question of what she will be like two months hence is perhaps even more interesting.