NEWS OF THE WEEK
IF the Italians can settle their own election a month from now without foreign interference, that will be the best that can be expected, but it will not remove the present dangers. For although, provided there are no irregularities, there is little doubt that the parties outside the so-called Democratic Front of Communists and Left-wing Socialists will retain a majority of seats, there is no guarantee either that they will be abl.. to form a strong Government or that the threat of Communist force and sabotage will be with- drawn. Despite the numbers and power of the Communists and their followers the factors of revolution are not as developed as they were in Czechoslovakia. The Department of the Interior and the police force have not been undermined, there is no racial or cultural sympathy with the East, and there is nothing corresponding to the pathological Czech fear of Germany. As for the Russians they have nothing to offer but promises of grain, which are suspect in view of their previous demands for fantastic reparations, and help towards the restoration of colonies, which looks most peculiar in the light of the all too recent suggestion that Tripoli should be ceded to Russia. There is no doubt whatever that to the Italian workers the Communists have nothing to give but the chains which already bind Eastern Europe. But these facts of the internal situation in Italy do not settle the matter. Force remains. The most potent weapon of the Czech revolution, the action committees in factories, offices, universities and elsewhere, could clearly emerge at a moment's notice all over Italy. An electorate which was never stable and which has suffered twenty years of enforced political irresponsibility under Mussolini cannot be relied upon to show courage. Even now the election prospects are being lost in a cloud of conflicting reports which are probably a true reflection of a confused situation. There is no avoiding the conclusion that the Western Powers will have to take a strong and definite stand. If they do not then the danger that Italy, like Czechoslovakia, will go Communist by default, is perfectly real. A promise of 400,000 tons of British coal, a secret visit by Western trade union officials, an incipient customs union with France, and an encouraging gesture from America do not add up to a strong stand. They add up to a weak hope. Now that the general statements of Western solidarity are pouring in, the particular application to Italy must be formulated at once.
