" A - Y — OF - FASCISM " [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,-Your original review of A Survey of Fascism, while it seemed to me misinformed and erroneous in supposing. that a group of enthusiasts at Lausanne either represented the ,Italian Government or could in any way be considered " a challenge to Geneva," was yet fair in SO far as it acknowledged the great practical benefits to Italy of the _Mussolini regime. Last week, however, your reviewer observes that Fascism is only a passing phase in Italy, destined to disappear-when that country recovers her balance and grows up. The impli- cation is that, our political institutions are quasi-perfect and that those who do not admire them are barbarians. Well, the number of such barbarians is groWing. The Italians do not criticize us, nor attempt propaganda like the Russians. They are an older race than ourselves. Their methods may not suit us, but surely it is only a shallow thinker who believes that when Italy is a little older she will be more like us. God preserve us all, if our Parliamentary methods are the end of Wisdom.. , One more point. Your reviewer stated that Fascism and ,Bolshevism were both creeds " born of despair." Fascism-yeas emphatically not bOrn of despair,. but of a deter- mination to enforce law and order on the part of the whole people. It was the same spirit which in England defeated the
General Strike. am, Sir, Ike", - . ANGLO-ITALIAN.
[" Anglo-Italian ;" seems unduly sensitive on the subject of Fascist Italy. We can assure him that any strictUres that we may make on the militant spirit and quasi-mediaeval intolerance of the present generation in Italy do not apply in any way to the political forms and institutions which are being estahliihed. On the contrary, the one healthy sign in post-war upheaVals—and this applies. equally to Italy and to -Russia, as also to many other European countries—is that at last each nation is intent on devising a political system and institutions out of its own genius, thus copying, but not borrowing from the English. Only thus will democracy be made safe for the world.—En. Spectator.]
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