An Italian correspondent writes to us in regard to Signor
Mussolini and his Government :- "Signor Mussolini's recent statement that if circumstances rendered it necessary he would be ready to proclaim himself the prince of reactionaries is significant. Both Houses have by an overwhelming vote accorded the man who might have made himself dictator, but who rather chose the Constitutional road, plenary powers for a year. Without them the herculean task he has under- taken to reduce a vastly inflated bureaucracy to reasonable propor- tions would have been impossible. The air is lighter. There is a sense that an incubus has been removed, that unrealities and in- sincere conditions of make-believe have passed away, and that grandiloquent phrases which never resulted in action will hence- forth cease to impress. Greater efficiency is already noticeable in some of the public services, and voluntary offers are being received from public servants to work an additional hour. A man is at the head of affairs who burns no incense on the altars of Demos, and does not fear to tell the truth as he sees it in direct language with no superlatives."
Previous page
