As an Italian paper has significantly hastened to remark, the
truth about Marshal Balbo's death will probably never be known. The latest version, that his aeroplane was shot down by Italian anti-aircraft guns, opening fire on an imaginary enemy (for there was no attack by the R.A.F. that day), is as likely as any. However that may be, there is something curiously prophetic, as well as valuably descriptive, in a passage in Mr. Martin Moore's book, The Fourth Shore, published by Routledge three or four months ago:
"What does the future hold for Italo Balbo? (Mr. Moore asked). He is young in years and younger still in energy. He has been dazzlingly successful in everything he has undertaken. Next to Mussolini, he is the most popular figure of Fascism ; and he has the charm of character which holds popularity, as well as the dashing exterior which wins it. His star is in the ascendant, its zenith unforeseeable. He may crash to death tomorrow in his aeroplane ; he may be sent to do for Abyssinia what he has done for Libya ; he may find a bigger future in Rome. Wherever he goes he will carry the same spirit of enterprise, the same egotistical verve, the same fatalistic courage. 'Nobody ever did anything by sitting at home and being afraid.' That spirit may lead Balbo to his death, or to the peak of power."
He has crashed to death in his aeroplane, but whether it was the spirit of adventure, or someone else's machinations, which ended his career remains unknown.
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