TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A MESSAGE FROM SIGNOR MUSSOLINI.

This message has been sent through the SPECTATOR by His Excellency Signor Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy. It is addressed to the people of England who desire truly to understand the meaning of Fascismo, and the new inspiration of Italy.

TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

IN order that Fascismo may be properly understood, it must be considered as a movement having a profound spiritual significance.

Its political manifestations have undoubtedly been both far-reaching and decisive, but they do not constitute the whole of its meaning.

Italian Fascismo was not merely a political revolt against those outworn and incapable governments which had become a menace to the development of Italy, and under whose rule the authority of the State had fallen into decadence and decay. It was also a spiritual revolt against old systems of ideas which were bidding fair to corrupt the sacred principles of Religion, of Patriotism, and of the Family.

As a spiritual revolt, therefore, Fascismo was a direct expression of the people of Italy. Soldiers back from the trenches, middle-class folk and work-people were among the first Fascisti, and this original character of the movement has never been lost sight of—and never shall be.

Now, and henceforward, in the work of reconstruction and in the restoration to a great national society of essential values, Fascismo is working with a soul of iron to strengthen in the people of this country those virtues of devotion and discipline from wItich as a movement it derived its first strength.

Whoever has eyes keen enough to read into the heart of Italy's story will be able to understand and appreciate Fascismo.

Those who know neither Italy nor her history, and who remain untouched by the purity and greatness of spiritual things, will never understand."

THE MESSAGE IN ITALIAN.

Il movimento fascista, per esserc compreso, deve essere considerato in tutto he sua vastith e profondita. di fenomeno spirituale. Lc sue manifestazioni politiche sono state le pia potenti e le piu decisive, ma non bisogna fermarsi ad esse : it Fascismo italiano non 6 stato infatti solamente una rivolta politica contro governi fiacchi ed incapaci che avevano lasciato decadere l'autorith dello stato e minacciavano di arrestare l'Italia sulla via del suo necessario sviluppo, ma e stato-una rivolta spirituale contro vecchie ideologie che corrompcvano i sacri principi della Religione, della Patria e della Famiglia. Rivolta spirituale dunque, it Fascismo 6 stato espresso cliretta- mente dal popolo. Soldati reduci dalle trincee, piccoli borghesie, operai, sono stati tra i primi fascisti, e questa origin ha impresso al movimento un carrattere che esso non ha mai perduto, e non perdera.

Restaurazione di principi e di valori essenziali a una gran societa nazionale, it Fascismo ora lavora con ammo di ferro a rafforzare nel popolo quelle virtu di devozione e di disciplina, dalle quail esso ha tratto la sua forza. Chi ha gli occhi tanto acuti da poter guardare nel cuore della storia d'Italia pub comprendere e valutare it Fascismo.

Chi non conosce, ne L'Italia, ne la sua storia, e chi non 6 abituato a conoscere la purezza e la grandezza dei fenomeni spirituali, non lo capira mai.

Our correspondent, Mrs. Amethe McEwen, has furnished us with a vivid description of her interview with Signor Mussolini, at which the message was given, and also of the setting of a scene so memorable and of such special interest to the readers of the SPECTATOR. The Prime Minister of Italy is not, as a rule, accessible to Foreign Correspondents, and we feel proud that he should have sent his message to the British People through us. The leader of Italian public opinion, the pilot who weathered the storm and took that mighty and beautiful Ship of State, ' The Italia,' triumphantly into harbour during a tempest so fierce and so full of dread and peril, seems to think that people here do not understand his hopes and aims. We can assure him that this is not so. As ever, the hearts of the English are with Italy.

The SPECTATOR can for itself boast that throughout the past ninety-seven years it has been " Italianissimo." So one of the leaders of the Ifisorgimento described it in the 'fifties.

" The privilege of sending the Spectator the above message was conferred on me by Signor Mussolini, President of the Council, in his room in the Palazzo Chigi, during a conversation of considerable length. His astounding personality made the interview one of the greatest privileges I have ever received in my life. The message, as your readers will see, is intended to give the people of England some understanding of the reconstructive nature of Fascismo and its development since the days when struggle and adversity demanded from it a combative spirit arid warlike determination.

I explained to His Excellency the desirability of eliminating from the minds of the people of England their false conception of Fascismo as a temporary experi- ment in government, and of laying stress for them upon its spiritual nature.

Mussolini listened to me with a look of half- humorous incredulity and rapped out, somewhat to my discomfiture, an accurate enumeration of all the oppor- tunities of understanding Fascismo that there had been during the past years, and particularly during the year of his Dictatorship. For such an understanding had there been, he asked, on our part, the necessary volonta ' or good will ?

However, I believe the President to be truly anxious for a further rapprochement with England, and to be willing to make concessions, on minor points at all events, in order to advance it. It was on this ground, indeed, that he consented to give me the message.

As regards the question of Foreign Policy, he touched on the subject once only, and then emphasized his adherence to the outline framed in his speech to the Senate of November 16th, 1923.

In answer to my tentative suggestion that, as the one strong man in Europe, he should take upon his shoulders the burden of the European problem, he answered shortly but with some amusement : oecupo dell' Italia, e dell' Italia, soltanto. Pei me, it contra dell' Europa e L'Italia. (I am concerned with Italy and Italy alone. From my point of view, Italy is the centre of Europe.) As a personality he is amazing. His vivid intuitive- ness and lightning adaptability make him an extra- ordinarily responsive listener, while the directness of his speech, and that magnetism of personality, which is, perhaps, a part of the equipment of every great man, bind one over to him completely, for the time being, and for long afterwards. Indeed, so strong is his personality that it tends to eliminate from one's mind every detail of his personal appearance.

I am sending• the President the Spectator's article on the Mediterranean question, of which the point of view will surely be agreeable to him. By way of postscript, I want to recall an incident which gives, very happily, a flash of the Dictator as he is probably envisaged in England.

My approach towards the great man's table across the vast, bare room in the Palazzo Chigi, where he works and thinks, was heralded by Commendatore Barone Russo, Signor Mussolini's right-hand man, who introduced me with words to the effect that I was able to speak the language with some ease.

As he took my hand, the President said, " Parla bene l'Italiano "—" You speak Italian well."

I murmured some conventional, deprecating remark : " Non troppo bene, ma abbastanza . . . "—" Not too well, but sufficiently. . . . "

" Bene-dico "—" I say well."

There was the Dictator speaking I

A3IETIIE MCEWEN.