The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-03-15

creet. Likewise. there are the rep
resentatives Of eXled governments.
like Poland's and Hollands, who
have no reason for being a bit dis
Greet. They're good guessers, too
And our state department is fairly
laxative.
Well, as the luck Of Il Duce Mus
solinIs forces in Africa and along
the Greek frontier. turned worse
and worse, this coterie began gen.
orally to forecast that the Fuehrer
wouldn't tolerate Benito as his Ital-
ian manager much longer - that
he'd speedily fire the latter as q
rank incompetent.
The theory was that Hitler
wouldn't overrun the peninsula in
the same military fashion that he
has part OF Scandinavia, the Low
Countries and occupied France, be-
cause that would antagonize the
Italians themselves. and he needs
them to fight for him-if he can
ginger EN- up.
The idea was that he probably
would inspire them to overthrow
Benitos regime and set up some
other more efficient dictator, NOM
inally Of their own selection, but
really his Italian puppet, just as he
had Monsieur Laval picked to, run
France, under his Nazi-istic thumb.
Good a Puppet as Any
Now it's agreed that he seems to
lave decided he can make Benito
IS satisfactory a puppet as any
body else he could choose. Maybe
he discovered that he couldn't find
any other Italian who'd exactly fill
the bill. And Benito presumably
has accepted the role Of unquali-
ded puppetry, instead of continu-
ing to stand pat as a self-deter-
mining dictator in his own right.
On this basis. of course. he'll
have one Of Adolf's agents directly
and constantly at his elbow. veto
ing his bungling and giving him
Berlin's orders as to precisely
what to do.
It's an arrangement which will
save Adolf the bother of an Italian
revolution, thing that would In
volve Axis delay and look badly TO
outsiders; they'd be liable to think
1t was the genuine article and indi-
cative Of internal Axis friction.
Count Ciano's reported to have
been one Of the Fuehrer's worries.
He's II Duce's son-in-law. All &C.
counts are that he's anti-German,
as most Italians additionally are.
The peninsula's censorship is too
strict for much reliable news to
leak out, but the story is that the
count has aimed at being dictator
himself IL an Italian revolution die
develop and his pa-in-law went
down the chute. II so, it wouldn't
have been very son-in-lawish. New
ertheless, assuming the truth OF
the rumors, Adolf undoubtedly
knew the facts Of the case.
Prefers Benito
And, from his standpoint, had he
engineered the incompetent but
pro-German Benito's overthrow, ii
would have been heck Of a note
to have had Benito's tolerably
competent but decidedly anti-Ger-
man son-in-law gravitate ifito the
Italian dictatorial job
So. in its last analysis, it's IN
derstandable why Adolfs prefer
ence should have been for Musso-
lini in the situation.
It doesn't look like a very pleas
ant state Of affairs In the Musso-
llni family, though. What must
be the Countess Cianos frame of
mind? And Mrs. MussolinYs?
That isn't Herr Hitlers funeral,
however
Anti-Axis diplomats in Wash
ington remark:
Gosh. How must Benito feel"
A photograph Of him recently
was received here. teaching a COM
pany Of Italian soldiers the goose
step.
The beauty Of it is that he was
full-hedged, hrst-clsss dictator,
giving his recalcitrant, ant.-Fas-
cIst countrymen castor oil, before
Adolf was even invented as a
Fuehrer The FIRST time they met
he pstronizei. Adolf as mere be-
ginner a. the game. But how
Adolf tells him where TO get of