29 MAY 1936, Page 2

Fascism in Africa It is now possible to learn from

authoritative sources a little more of the Italian plans for Ethiopia's future. On Sunday, in Addis Ababa, Marshal Graziani announced that the 500,000 soldiers stationed in Ethiopia were not to be demobilised nor settled On the land but maintained on a military footing ; they might return men to Italy to marry. but would have to bring their wives back to their new African home. Thus, it seems, Italy will form permanent military colonies in Africa on the Roman model. It is difficult to imagine how Signor Mussolini, in the present condition of his finances, will house and feed his military settlements, but they will demand a heavy tribute from both the Italian and the Abyssinian peoples. But Italians will not be the only Fascist soldiers in Africa, for Mussolini intends to confer the blessings of Fascism and militarism on Abyssinians also ; .obviously as an example of what can be done with native peoples, a thousand trained and armed Arab youths from Tripoli paraded, with the Fascist before the Duce on Sunday, singing their own song, " Faccieta Nem " (little black-face). Signor Mussolini's -methods of colonisation, if they can be carried through, will revolutionise the African problem as we know it today.