Whatever opinion may be held of Fascism as a material
benefactor of Italy, none can deny that it has inflicted on her a moral wrong, for it has annihilated freedom of thought. This it does in self-defence, and that it should have done so is its own severest condemnation. Signor Mussolini, in the words of Signor Nenni's Ten Years of Tyranny in Italy (Allen and Unwin, 7s. 6d.), which Anne Steele translates, "stands revealed as the representative of a faction and the assassin of Liberty." How Italy is to regain her freedom Signor Nenni Is unable to foretell, but he is confident that the day will come. Italy overcame the Austrian ; ultimately she crushed the -Bourbon of Naples, to whose ferocious methods Fascism's sentences of 7,000 years of imprisonment in the last four years bear a dreadful likeness. The final act of the Italian Risorgi- mento remains to be played and the murder of Matteotti to be avenged. Meantime this book is a picture of "Italy as she was and as she is to-day " ; and if the shadow of European war deepens, the author considers that "Fascism will inevit- ably play a provocatory part," and he deplores the fact "that Europe has not pondered the situation as she should."
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