Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-08
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was stiII thinking that something could
be done by constitutional means. IL
was in this year that he went to the
Fascist party congress at Rome and
caused a sensation by a speech which
almost caused a split in the party. The
ofHcial policy expounded by the leader,
he asserted, was not sufhc1ently syn
dicalist and democratic.
There was immediate uproar. But
Mussolini Gained the storm and ad-
n1itted that there was much in what
the young man from Bologna said. He
replied III a tone of serious apprecia-
ton. Grandi did not thenceforward
se.?rs .l,I .,rice Of this clear minded
revolutionary leader who knew rSactly
what he wanted ano where he was
going. 1randi with encouragement
and cosA,hing. would come on. Grandi
was a man & the people, like himself.
Grand was going H. ~ useful in the
fullness of time, when the day OF the
fire-eaters was over and when the time
came to dragon TIE industrialists who
Just then viewed Fascism as the only
anti-communist force in sight and were
financing 1t.
In the year following Grand made
his first appearance on the international
stage. He was Italian representative
at an international labor congress in
Holland. It is an appearance which
has left no mark in history.
After the great march he was given
q post in the home Office. Then Mus
soiini sent him to Turkey to get brief
mountaineering with the mechanism
Of professional diplomacy before recall
ing him and making him his deputy
at the Palazzo Chigi. The scarcely
yelled hostility of the vested interests
there would have made smaller, less
resolute man feel uncomfortable and
Ill at ease. Grand. however was sure
of himself and well-backed by the over
whelming Duce. He stood no non
sense Mussolini would drop in every
other day when he came in to the adj
ministration quarter from the we'll
guarded Villa Torlonia and see how he
was getting along. But he came less
and less frequently. Grand was all
right.
Full Pledged Minister.
And when, on September H. 1929,
Mussolini relinquished seven cabinet
posts, retaining only the premiership
and, through the ministry Of the in
terror, control of the police forces, the
huge militia of 300. 900 men and $4,000
officers, and the regular war machine,
Grandi was left where he was, but now
he was no longer undersecretary; he
was full-f1edged minister.
He knows his stuff He is a good,
Bound diplomatist. He gives the i'm
preston of frankness even when you
know, and he knows that you know, he
is hiding lot more under his hat than
he allows to emerge from his lips. But
even when he is careful not to talk,
even when discretion is the better part
OF valor for the .lelmsman Of the
PalaZzo Chigi, he never has that air of
SecretiveneSs which so often irritates
the Anglo-Saxon diplomatist dealing
with colleague of Latin, Gallo or ORR
entail persuasion.
On the whole. despite the well known
Fascist ambition TO make the Adriatic
an italian lake and to enlarge Italy's
holdings in Africa, despite also the
Duce's intermittent paeans in praise of
machine guns and shells as a means for
pushing the national fortunes and set
Ting arguments with neighbors, Grand
personally has impressed himself on
chancellerieS as a minister of reason
able mind and peaceful intent.
But let 1t not be thought that the
foreign minister is an independent pow
er within the Fascist group blanketing
his leaders imperialistic schemes. On
the contrary AS Mussolinis efficient
instrument he has very definite func-
ton TO d1Scharge, ana ne would not last
an hour If he did not discharge that
function to the full satisfaction of his
chief
His function has never been captured
in phrase. But If you said that it is
his business to keep his department
functioning efficiently while Fascist
Italy consolidates internally, you would
be near the mark.
Question Of Time.
How long it will take the Fascists to
consolidate is question which has been
Variously answered. Turati, when he
was party secretary, told me that the
ultimate objective of Fascism was the
creation of a middle class, that class
which gives Britain its backbone and
stability and which Italy has never
evolved; after which the Fascist party
would disappear But if Italy has to
await the growth and development of a
middle class before the Fascists can re-
lax from internal watchfulness and send
the order for full steam ahead to the
PalazZo Chigi Grand would be marking
time in his Office until he celebrates his
golden wedding fhis wife is young,
lovely and very smart).
The truth is probably that the Duce