The declaration of policy by Signor Mussolini, the new Fascist
Prime Minister of Italy, on Thursday, November 16th, was a strange but memorable perform- ance. Enormous crowds assembled to see the new ruler of Italy, and when he was delivering his Crom- wellian homily to the Chamber he had the satisfaction of speaking his mind to no fewer than five ex-Primc Ministers. If the spirit of the speech was not quite that of Cromwell, the tone was.
" What I am doing to-day," he said, according to Reuter, " is a formal act of courtesy towards you for which I do not ask grati- tude. For too many years Ministerial crises have been settled by political manoeuvres, but now the Italian nation has given itself a Ministry in spite of Parliament. I leave to the melancholy worshippers of Constitutionalism dissertations and complaints • . . I could have punished all those who decried Fascism. I could have closed Parliament. I could have t But for the time being I chose not to."
Previous page
