No one can expect the path of the League of
Nations to he smooth. Its members are called on to take stern decisions, and some of them may well shrink from the burden it will lay on them. But this country has given an inspiring lead and there is good reason to believe that it will evoke such a response as to make collective action an impressive reality. Unanimity there may not be. But unanimity is not required under the Covenant. r rhe assertion that it is emanates chiefly from those who for one reason or another desire to see the League impotent, Signor Mussolini, in his flamboyant speech on the occasion of the national mobilisation on Wednesday, declared that Italy would meet economic sanctions with calmness and acts of war with acts of war. It may be so. If she does the consequences will be what they must be. The • mobilisation itself is apparently con- sidered to have achieved its purpose, but what that purpose was it is difficult for anyone outside Italy to divine. Fascists went to their town halls, demon- strated, and went home again, after listening to Signor Mussolini's broadcast speech. There has always been a strong element of melodrama in Fascism, and this must be taken as a striking and successful example of it.
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