Evening star., 1938-05-04
ROna-BerlinO.

II f1lller S bdIlluHleSQue FlSlL 10 1ldIl,
which began in Rome yesterday and
will rage for a week, had taken place
two months ago the world might have
had cause to shudder over what the
Fascist dictators would cook up in the
way of broth designed to aggravate
an already gravely disordered inter-
national digestive system. The atmos-
phere in which Der Fuehrer and II Duce
meet in May is vastly different than it
was in March. They do not bestride
Europe today like a twin Colossus.
Their wings still spread afar, but they
are clipped. Their power for evil, in
the form of aggression and intimidation,
is not broken but it is badly bent The
Rome Berlin axis has ceased to be a
line around which the neighbors of
Italy and Germany rotate in either
fear or cringing awe.
Mussolini is staging a spectacularly
impressive reception for the brother
autocrat whose unwelcome legions now
mount guard at the Brenner as grim
evidence that a buffer of Austria no
longer tmmunizes Italy against Nazi
attack. Thus, the pageantry and eXhibi-
ton Of military, naval and aerial might
with which Hitler is to be greeted are
by no means primarily token of his
fellow -dictator's esteem. That has
sagged sadly since the Austrian coup.
Mussolini's consuming purpose is in the
keeping up -wtth-the-Joneses spirit. He
desires 10 put on an even more glittering
show than Hitler put on for him in
Germany. The blackshirt poseur of the
T1ber is keen to demonstrate that the
Nazis have nothing on the Fascists when
1t comes to political extravaganza.
The two trainloads of German moguls
who accompany Der Fuehrer, including
those humiliating tokens of a muzzled
press, troop of uniformed newspaper
correspondents, signify that the Hitler
ties have not crossed the Alps on a
vacation to admire the restoration of
Romes imperial glories, the reclamation
Of the Pontine Marshes, the submarine
dotted, blue-skyed harbor of Naples or
the priceless art treasures of Florence
Hitler, Won Ribbentrop, Goebbels and
the Reich's military. naval and air chiefs
are travelling strictly on business Their
business is hardly secret. They want
to know just what Mussolini means in
burying the hatchet with Britain in
the Mediterranean, North Africa and
the Near East. They are anxious to find
out what Italys impending entente with
France connotes. The German pilgrims
yearn to exchange views about the re-
vived war alliance between the British
and the French, to discover to what
extent It affects the creaking Rome
Berlin axis and Its one-time purpose
to mold European destinies to it's will.
What Is TO become of the projected
Franco pay-of in Spain, now that the
Italians have promised Mr. Chamberlain
10 quit the peninsula-sooner or later
is yet another Nazi question that will
be posed with some persistence. And
looming above and behind all these
burning issues is Hitler's notorious
hankering for a foothold near the
Adriatic, in the former Austrian port
OF Trieste, now Italian, to say nothing
Of Germany's drang mach Osten, across
Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Hungary
to the Black Sea. Is Mussolini prepared
TO underwrite such vaulting ambitions,
or, bulwarked by his new friendships
with the Western democracies will he
reject Nazi Establishments and bluffs
alike. including the offer of an outright
military alliance to match the Anglo
French barrier to Fascist dreams?
The world is about to be regaled with
thrilling details of theatrical events in
Italy. 1t will assess them at their real
value If 1t bears in mind that behind
them lurk gnawing rivalries, suspicious
and hatreds that turn an apparent love-
feast into the international farce
comedy Of the decade Two master
craftsmen are strutting their stuff. 1t
should soon develop which of them stole
the show.