MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
There is a tendency both in this country and the United States to imagine that there will be no such thing as an Italian problem, and to adopt the theory that Italy in future will be little more than a geographical expression. Even if that were true (which it is not), Italy, by her position astride the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, will always be a geographical expression of immense importance. Yet it is unwise to suppose that a country of forty-five million people, possessing so vast a tradition of culture, intelligence and ingenuity, can ever constitute a negligible factor in European stability. It may be true, as Don Sturzo suggests, that Italy suffered a " diminution of stature" when she became nationalistic ; it may be true that if she can recapture something of her former universality, she will, in fact, become " the great pacific nation"; and all we can policy committed by the democracies during the last twenty years hope is that the dreams of this good Italian will, in fact, come true.
faudra faire grand. The theory implicit in each of these two publications is that Italy, having been reduced by the Fascist adventure to a position of weakness, must seek to recover strength by combining with others. Don Sturzo seems to rely upon the long tradition of Italian universality, and to hope that in the future European system Italy will find in a combination of small Powers a means of exercising her influence and resource. Count Sforza seems to envisage some form of close co-operation with France, with the implication that such an alliance could be extended to Spain, Portugal and Belgium in the form of a Latin federation. " After all this ruination," he writes, " a formidable task awaits us. After the mistakes of the past, Frenchmen and Italians must oblige the world not only to respect them but also to admire them. How is this to be achieved? Tomorrow it will be easier to do great things than to do mediocre things. And in order to do great things, it will first be necessary not to oppose the laws of the future." Underneath this rhetoric there exists a perfectly realistic conception. It is a conception which finds some echo in the reference to " the two great neighbours " which de Gaulle made on the morrow of Italy's collapse. It is the theory that after the war some affinity, some solidarity even, may develop between the defeated and the victim nations distinct from, if not actually in opposition to, the policies of the three main victors. This theory may well prove something more definite than a solace to wounded pride: it may, in a highly nationalist world, provide a " continental " solution independent of East and West alike. * * * *
Count Sforza's pamphlet was composed before he had returned to Italy or accepted office in the Badoglio Government. It is perhaps not fair to quote words written in the distress of exile as repre- senting the considered policy of a man who now finds himself in a position of responsibility. Nor is there in principle anything to criticise in the theory that France and Italy should seek to obliterate the sad memories of 1940 or to assist each other in salving the wounds of war. The pamphlet, stern and dignified as it is, suggests no tendencies to which we have any right or reason to object ; it is merely that it serves to remind us that the community of suffering which the victim and the defeated countries have endured does certainly constitute a bond of sympathy ; and that the United States and ourselves, who, unlike Russia, have not experienced the horrors of occupation, should be aware of this potential solidarity and should act with sufficient tact to render it an element of construction rather than a possible focus of dissension. Were we, in any mood of self-assertive arrogance, to rely too much upon the role of Liberators, we might well find that the peoples whom we liberated came to resent our presence more than they regretted our absence. The British, who are reserved by nature, are not likely to expect exaggerated applause ; but the Americans, who feel that they have made a great sacrifice in coming to Europe's rescue, may well be offended when the first transports of gratitude begin to cool. Count Sforza's thesis is perfectly reasonable ; but it serves to remind us that when victory comes there may, as in 1815, be many unhappy people who will be drawn together by their common discontent. The facts of victory, the blessings of liberation, will not therefore in themselves prove sufficient ; we shall not succeed if we seek to impose our own solution ; the new system will have to be established with the willing collaboration of the European countries themselves.
* * * * Don Sturzo, by the consistency and courage which he has dis- played since the first hour of Mussolini's experiment, has earned the admiration of all right-minded men ; his analysis of the errors of
IHAVE been reading this week two books written by prominent commands both sympathy and respect. It is natural that a man Italian Liberals on the problem of Italy's future. The first is of his proved liberal convictions, that a man so deeply imbued with called Italy and the New World Order, written by Luigi Sturzo the democratic ideals of the Risorgimento, should regard Fascism (MacDonald, 7s. 6d.). The second is a small pamphlet written by as totally alien to the true genius of the Italian people, and should
Count Sforza and issued in Montreal under the title Demain iI assume that it was little more than a conspiracy of violence imposed by an unscrupulous minority upon an unwilling and guiltless people.
Even to Mussolini himself, contends Don Sturzo, Fascism was neither a conviction nor a faith, but merely a technique of policy. Had we, he argues, understood from the first the distinction between Fascism and the Italian people, had we realised that when Mussolini's tyranny collapsed the whole Italian nation should have been welcomed as friends and as Allies, then we might have pre- vented Italy from becoming the theatre of a difficult and most destructive campaign. if a substantial minority of Italians had shared Don Sturzo's convictions, or possessed his resolute character, then indeed the whole course of the war might have been altered but what Don Sturzo ignores, or refuses to contemplate, is that the delays and disappointments which occurred after the dismissal of Mussolini were due, not so much to any errors on the part of the United Nations, as to hesitation on the part of the Italians themselves. There may have been powerful reasons for this hesita- tion, but it is neither reasonable nor just to blame the Allies because the Italians were themselves unable to seize the opportunity in time. * * * *
It is profitless, however, to engage in controversy with this good man in regard to past history. His book is particularly useful and valuable in its suggestions as to the means by which a country which has " been exposed for twenty years to a subtle and continuous poison " can hope to be re-educated and to recover its ancient sanity and self-respect. Don Sturzo fully recognises that it will first be necessary to cleanse the Italian soul of the infections of megalo- mania and self-pity which the Fascist system induced. How can Italy become again" " the great pacific nation!' and evolve for herself a second Risorgimento within a new European system? Don Sturzo does not believe that the Anglo-Saxons will be able to impose a new system of education upon the rising Italian generation. " An education," he writes wisely, " is a spiritual problem, and is achieved mainly from within each one of us, with our own expeeence in an environment of spontaneity and freedom." He places great faith in the critical spirit which is habitual to all Italians and to the force of which he attributes the fact that Fascism had,, in his con- tention, only a superficial effect. He believes that 'this gift of criticism, if properly nurtured by Italians themselves, can be made the basis of a " natural " re-education. It should not be impossible, in his opinion, to found upon the individualism of the Italians a strong conception of " liberty." Their scepticism could be developed, first into a critical distrust of all untruth, and thereafter into a passion for truthfulness and honour.. And in that the Italian possesses a naturally Christian soul, his whole nature could be cleansed by a religious revival.- It is on these three things—on liberty, character and faith—that he would found the re-education of the Italian people.
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