Flight from the Facts The mental processes of dictators are
sui generis, and Signor Mussolini's decision to withdraw Italian correspondents from London because he does not like what British papers have said about Italian troops in Spain is only to be explained on the assumption that logic has gone the way of freedom in Italy. The correspondents were under no obligation to quote what the British Press said, and if they did their messages could be censored before publication in Italy. As to the wholesale exclusion of British papers from Italy, the three journals excepted from the ban are placed in an invidious position for which they rightly express distaste and in which they deserve general sympathy. The Italian gesture is obviously more a sign of weakness than of strength, but it is of concern to Italy alone. The real trouble, of course, is that British newspapers report what happens, and Italian papers are not allowed to when what happens is unwelcome to the administration. The contrast must frequently be embarrassing, and it would seem that Signor Mussolini has not succeeded in inculcating in Italy in regard to British newspapers the attitude of philosophic detachment with which British opinion views, for example, Signor Gayda and the Giornale d'Italia. Such incidents, though they do no particular harm to anyone, are to be regretted as exacerbating international opinion further, and it is to be hoped that, honour having been satisfied by the exclusion of Coronation news from Italian papers, the Italian corre- spondents may before long be back in London.
* * * *
Previous page
