Paradoxically the Italian censor passed a dispatch last week discussing the fact that 77 Duce’s own speeches are now censored and released to the Italian press in the form of brief, official summaries, whereas a few months ago they were printed in extenso on the front page of every Italian paper. The new system, ordered by Il Duce himself, permits him to go as far as he likes when he talks without fear of repercussions later. Addressing a medical convention not long ago in Rome. Premier Mussolini went the whole hog against birth control, told the learned doctors (some of whom he suspected of birth controlling) exactly what he thought of them in language both coarse and picturesque, wound up his speech by extolling with lyric realism the habits of prolific Italian peasants.
Having had his fun, Il Duce was content to see his speech appear in the Italian press next day censored, euphemized, almost unrecognizable.
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