* * * * While Herr Hitler, with moving self-effacement,
is announcing that Adolf Hitler Platz in Munich shall hence- forth be known as Mussolini Platz, some c! the current com- ments by German writers on various aspects of Italian life are instructive. The Berlin paper Die Bank publishes an article extremely critical of Italian finances, pointing out that there are three great tasks whose execution must inevitably drain the Exchequer—the organisation of Albania, rearma- ment, and the self-sufficiency programme—which must in- volve either increased taxation, with a proportionate reduc- tion in purchasing-power, or inflation. At the same time the military periodical, Militdr Wochenblatt, after repro- ducing certain exuberant Italian estimates of the potentiali- ties of the Italian army, observes caustically that " in the reality of war, when an enemy of equal calibre would have to be reckoned with, these exceedingly optimistic views would be liable to suffer very considerable diminutions and surprises." It is due to the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph to note that he alone appears to have cabled these two pertinent comments on successive days.
Previous page
