Evening star., 1940-11-19
Fascist Illustration

10 many ears beyond FaSclSt Dor
ders Benito MusSolini's illumination
in Rome yesterday carries the ring
of Illustration. Choosing as the
occasion for his first speech since
Italy entered the war the fifth ami
verSary of economic sanctions during
the Ethiopian campaign, II Duce
thundered that I'VE will break
Greece's back if it takes year." and
vowed that the European conflict will
go on until Britain is annihilated." ;"
Branding the latter as "the modern
Carthage" and likening it to that an
cient power whose naval strength
held both shores of the Mediter-
ranean in its grip, MuSsolini accused
the Greeks of conspiring with the
British in a plot of long standing to
make Italy impotent. He furiously
denied British claims of a naval vic
tory at laramie, asserting that only
one Warship was badly damaged and
that she will be repaired in relatively
short order
BY far the most significant passage
in II Duce's remarks, which SAVIOR of
a general alibl for Italy's failure TO
advance against Egypt, to challenge
Britain's command of the Mediter-
ranean, or to strike an effective blow
at Greece, is the call upon the Italian
people for more severe sacrifices"
That is undiSguiSed admission that
MuSSolini is finding Fascism's road to
victory a rocky one and likely to be
arduous beyond anything yet ex-
perienced. There is certainly no in
dication that Italy hopes to be able
to travel that road alone, for direct
German aid is foreshadoWed by yes
terday's conference at Berchtesgaden
between Hitler and Count Ciano and
by a reported recent meeting at
Innsbruck between German General
Field Marshal Keitel and Italian
Marshal Badoglio. Spanish Foreign
Minister Suner's presence at Berch-
tesgaden suggests that the axis
powers, with Spain'S cooperation,
are planning a pretentious squeeze
play against Britain, with combined
Italo-German attack on Greece in
the Eastern Mediterranean, and a
simultaneous Italo-German-Spanish
offensive against Gibraltar at the
western gateway of the great Middle
Sea. There is a grim hint in all this
that MuSsolinis contribution to axis
glory thus far has been something of
a dud.
Meantime Mussolini is at lavish
pains to explain the absence of vic
tory over Greece. No lightning war,
he points out, can be waged in "the
mud and mountains" OF. that country.
But, to accomplish Italian ends, "a
million men are under arms and
eight million more can be called"
The Premier finds it necessary to
bluster that Germans and Italians
together form "a bloc of one hundred
and fifty millions, reSolute, compact
and firm from Norway to Libya," and
that triumph lis already in its fist"
Despite such boasts, it is exceed
ingly doubtful whether Italians con-
template winter of war in that
confidence and good cheer with
which Mussolini seeks to inspire
them 1t is a war which they never
wished. Effectually blockaded at sea,
their privationS, respecting shortage
of both food and vital campaign
sinews like oil, grow graver from week
to week. Conquest of Mare Nos
trum" remains an iridescent dream
Graziani's army has not been able to
proceed toward the Suez Canal be-
yond Sidi Barrani, where it has been
pegged for weeks. Greece is still far
from subjugated. II Duce's appeal
for greater sacrifices is much more
revealing message to his people than
his truculent grandiloquence about
victories which to date are conspicu-
GUS by their absence.