ITALY: Retort

Il Duce Benito Mussolini has never been one to bow to mass opinion, nor is he above giving the retort discourteous to those who dare criticize his actions. Five weeks ago there were murmurs of disapproval when he jolted the entire Fascist organization with the biggest shake-up in years, deposed ministers right and left and assumed two Cabinet posts himself. The hopes of those who felt that Fascism should have outgrown the necessity for such moves were withered last week by Il Duce’s announcement that he was thinking seriously of taking over three moreCabinet posts, the Ministries of War, Navy, and Air, amalgamated in a single. Ministry of Defense. The Air Minister, plump, bearded Italo Balbo, who has listened so patiently to so many Mussolini speeches, will probably receive an important consolation prize. Minister of the Navy Giuseppe Sirianni and Minister of War Pietro Gazzera will probably be retired. Because the Italian Red Cross has grown so great, it is likely that it will be reorganized as a Ministry of Public Health.

Three other popular ideals, withered under the Mussolini blast last week:

Capitalism: “Capitalism is at an end. With it is going its accumulation of reparations and international financial obligations and the rest. This is a development which America must face.”

Prosperity: “You must not believe that there will be any improvement in the next few months.”

Peace: “I do not believe there can be perpetual peace. It is not possible. That is my philosophy from observation of world conditions and history.”

Popping a grape into his mouth, Mussolini spluttered: “Prohibition is immoral!”

U. S. films, struggling against Italian quota regulations, received another blow. Word came from Il Duce through Italian Ambassador Giacomo de Martino that unless Paramount’s version of Ernest Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms is revamped to remove all reference to the disastrous Italian retreat from Caporetto during the War, all future Paramount films will be banned from Italy. Further, this may apply to all U. S. films if the present tendency to depict Italians as villains and naughty fellows is not corrected.