17 DECEMBER 1937, Page 6

* * * * It must be nice for Signor

Starace to be the star ace of the Fascist Party, and it is right and natural that as a good Fascist he should know how to put his foot down firmly. But he should also know where to put it down, and on the microphone wire that is to carry the Duce's voice to all Italy and beyond is clearly not the right place. The distressing result of his misplaced energy was that the earlier rumblings of Signor Mussolini's thunder on the departure of Italy from the League of Nations were lost to the world altogether. And worse than that. A further consequence, according to The Times Rome correspondent, was that the .Duce's " hands and arms were swinging in their familiar gestures, but only a strange and protracted silence was vouchsafed to the listening crowds." In a word, Signor Starace not only made his leader inaudible ; he made hint look ludicrous.

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