The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-11
BY PEG Ed

parison between the conduct of -.
Duce's dashing indomitables in Al
bania and that of the British
France is not very complimert.rn
to the Italian nation under fa<cisn,
but it has been offered bv sor,.
loyal followers of Mussolini in Hi,
country and therefore NAV be- ov
amined out loud. They NAV h..
sorry they brought it up.
To start with the British disss.
ter, it will be conce le7 surely ,b,.
the British nation . caugbt fl.
footed even after a year Of bo.
rowed time, and that the foro,
was a boW-and-arrow arnv y.
comparison with the great Cor
man machine. The British v,or0
attacked by methods and weanor,
never before encountered. and ,r,
Italian who denies that the Gov
mans fought superbly disbonors
his comrades at the other end "A
the Axis. Nevertheless, after
hopeless stand against the grea,ost
military force on earth the Briicb
reached the beach and. thanks m
part to their luck, most Vi tbam
were rescued. In any case tber
were under attack by the hest
army in the world, which * tbo
important point to remember IN
turning now to Albania, where ,bo
indomitables had the initiative
against a third-rate power.
Unwise
To compare the German armv
with the Greek army is to belittis
the Germans to an INSULTING do.
gree and flatter the Greeks ont.
landishly. And even if it be con.
coded that, as it has been said
some of those Greeks speak with
an Australian or cockney accent
that doesn't improve the case for
fascism, because the fascists al,
ready have said that the British
fled contemptibly in France. Such
reasoning is mwise, because it
argues that the fascists were doins
all right until a small force Of
towards Joined their enemy and
put them to flight.
1t should be remembered also
that the Italians under MussoIini
had been arming, marching, shoot.
ing, putting out their cheeks. beat.
ing their chests and leaping
through circles of fire and over
hurdles of bayonets for Is wears.
Even babies were dressed in uni.
forms and taught to lisp that they
were killers. Long before Hitler
came to power Mussolini's Italy
glorlfled war in song and story
and in the public schools, and their
aviation. which Was their special
boast, had fattened its vanity by
shooting %barnyard ducks in Ethio.
pla and Barcelona.
IT any nation ever prepared for
conquest, subordinating all else to
thought and talk of war and pre-
paration for victory over weaker
people, that nation was fascist Tia.
ly.
Yet, when war finally came,
Mussolini tented until the death
rattle of France could be heard
all over the world and then stabbed
the fallen neighbor-a blow which
should have hurt the Italian peo-
pie as much as it hurt the French.
1t that stroke did not fill the Ital-
lans with a sense of remorse and
shame, then that cancels all their
boasts of superior civilization and
military valor.
In Albania Two Years
The fascists had been in Albania
for two years. They had had time
to make the most through prepat.
ations for the conquest of a small,
poor and alarmed enemy, and
their sideshoW vars had given
them an opportunity to acQualnt
their soldiers with war under com
paratively safe conditions. They
old not have to start cold.
But, when it happened, the H.
domitables were chased out OF a
country in which they had every
advantage, even abandoning the
seaport which the Duce, IN MS
fatuouS vanity, had named for MS
daughter, the wife of the boastiul
Count Ciano.
This was not the German Wal
machine which disgraced taSclsIl
after SO many years of pot-vallaW'
boasting. 1t was the army OF Inc
little Greek nation. 1t was not ue
British who fled, but the daShIN5
lnvincibles of Benito MuSSoInl'
The Duce ought to take another
look at the animal which has oeeA
sucking his modern warrior SohS
of the she-Wolf. There IS reason
to suspect that he doesn't kh0"
much about wolves and that some
one sold him a cur. Perhaps ms
Greeks, who have a word for any,
thing, have a word for the SONS Oh
a she-cur. The Americans have