22 NOVEMBER 1935, Page 1

Italy's New Cothmandek In a week empty of important military

event the recall. of General de Bono provideS the most' interesting news. It is probably dictated by developments in Europe rather than on the fighting front. The Marshal's baton that awaits the General in Rome is no merely formal honour, for the Duce must be genuinely grateful to one of Fascism's earliest and most distinguished apostles who has framed and successfully initiated a • plan of campaign which held great promise of victory in the field. That it may now be found also to promise economic failure and bankruptcy is no fault of the soldier, and since it, or its method of execution, must be changed if time is not to be the only victor in a war which bids fair to ruin both combatants, it is no slur on General de Bono that the implementing of the change is put in other hands. Marshal Badoglio, who succeeds him, has the reputation of being a political and military realist. He is not likely to run undue risks, and if he can find no way to hasten victory without courting disaster there may be yet another change—this time in the intransigent attitude of Rome.

*