NEWS OF THE WEEK D EVELOPMENTS in Italy have so far
fallen short of expecta- tions, though there are signs that important decisions are on the point of being taken. Mussolini's fall has not as yet affected Italian foreign policy as it has affected internal. At home Marshal Badoglio has done some work that the Allies would have had to do in any case. The destruction of the Fascist Party has been carried through with thoroughness and expedition. Not only has the party been formally dissolved, with little opposition, but an enquiry is to be held into the means by which Mussolini and other individual Fascists enriched themselves (not, probably, on the scale achieved by Goering and his fellow-Nazis), school history-books are to be purged, and no history later than the end of the last war (Mussolini attainedoffice in 1922) is henceforward to be taught in schools. All that is well enough, but meanwhile Italy under Badoglio is, theoretically at any rate, prosecuting the war as it prosecuted it under Mtissolini, even though, it seems clear that in certain theatres, notably the Balkans, the average Italian soldier has'less stomach for a fight than ever. That disintegration has set in is clear. How far it has been carried is less clear, for the censorship is in no way relaxed, and it is hard to assess the value and probable effect of the riots and demands for peace in the industrial north. In spite of the example of Petain, it was perhaps optimistic to believe that a soldier with Badoglio's record would accept office merely to indicate unconditional surrender. But every day the conviction that there is no alternative will impress itself more irresistibly on the Italian mind, and if Badoglio is not prepared to wave the white flag someone who will can readily be found.
