The Protean mutability of those personalities who move in the
public eye is an entertaining study. Looking through the Official Report of the Debate on the Address the other day, my eye was caught by a paragraph quoted by a speaker: " I could not help being charmed as so many others have been by his simple, gentle bearing, his calm, detached poise, despite his many burdens and dangers; and secondly could see that he thought of nothing but the lasting good, as he understood it, of the Italian people and that all else was of secondary interest to him."
Who was this selfless and gentle patriot? Mazzini? Garibaldi? No: it was the Jackal, or Hyena, as seen by Mr. Winston Churchill a few years back. In the same book, Hitler, that wicked man, appears as " a highly competent, cool, well-informed functionary with an agreeable manner and a disarming smile "- an odd description of this unpleasant little fidget with his maniac's scream. But he can obviously impose ; I remember Mr. George Lansbury returning from an interview with the Fiihrer about 1937 and saying : " I have looked into that man's eyes and know he means peace." M. Stalin, too, has suffered some peculiar changes since the days when he was Hitler's boon companion, exchanging birthday greetings with him, talking of the bond sealed by blood, and walking into the unfortunate Finns. The Finns, meanwhile, have gone down in the world. In the shifting European scene, no one knows what figure he will be cutting this time next month, and no one need despair of his reputation. * * * *
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