Evening star., 1949-06-18
] uJIQ1 v VI NV0S ~ VIII
Police Control Baked
Revolution in Italy
Modern Coup d'Etot
Technique Well Known
To Democratic Leaders
By Dorothy Thombson

Dy DOT0tHJ HOmpSOu
ROME CBy Airmail, Delayed -
In the struggle Of a powerful mi
nority party for the capture Of
total power by the quasi-legal
means of the modern revolution.
the key position always Is held by
the ministry Of the interior. In
charge Of the police.
. To capture three ministries
police. propaganda (or public in
formation) and usually agricul-
ture, has always been the mini
mum demand of totalitarian par
ties, whether Fascist or Commu-
mist, when they enter coalitions.
OF these the most important is
the police power. All that is nee
essary. to effect a successful coup
d'etat with the aspect of legality.
Is to be able to change the po-
lice-normally entrusted with the
protection of the constitutional
order and law-into an instru-
ment to protect, instead, a single
party. This was the tactic Of fas-
cism and nazism and is the tactic
of communism.
II, The days Of barricades-the
overturning of the state by street
mobs-are over. The modern to-
,talitarian revolution does not aim
to subvert the state by the people,
but to subvert the rights Of the
people with the instruments Of
the state.
ID Czech Example Cited.
The most recent example Is
Czechoslovakia. Despite the con-
f1dence of the Czechoslovak peo-
pie and of foreign governments
In the popularity and good inten-
tions of the government Of DR..
Benes and Jan Masaryk. that
government never had effective
power, because Its police were
controlled by enemies within the
coalition.
Whether Cor when) the Com
nunists would take over the state
was entirely a matter Of their own
choice and timing. The shock and
astonishment which the world
registered was, therefore, naive.
It certainly did not surprise the
writer. who knew the jig was up
and the government living on
borrowed time-the moment the
Communists were legally" in con-
troll eof police and propaganda.
Now. Italian democratic leaders
are thoroughly familiar with the
technique of the modern coup
d'etat. The great danger to the
concept of coalition governments.
and to all governments constituted
by proportional representation, Is
that they give aspirants for total
(and permanently power access to
key ministries which they could
never invest by straight majority
rule.
In Italy, for the time being at
least. the security system is strong
because the police are firmly in
the hands Of the constitutional
forces-and so is the small Italian
Army. Strikes cannot effectively
spread to the streets. The Com
munists land some Liberals) thor
oughly hate Signor Scelba. the
Minister of the Interior, and ac-
cuse Italy of being q police state"
But a strong police is in no sense
a description of a police state.
Strategy Of Terror.
In a police state the police are
instruments of a single party, not
of the constitutional order, and
every party member and func-
tionary is part of the police. No
one, for example, can possibly
compute the number and distri-
button Of Mussolini's police forces.
Apart, from the visible. and So
registered police, there were thou
sands in the Fascist militia. black
shirts. syndicates. and internal
espionage organizations. :.
In q police state, political and
social disturbances are suppressed
before they occur largely through
the universal knowledge that they
donot stand a chance. The STRAIT
egy Of terror is quieter than the
democratic Imagination depicts it.
The Fascist police did not have
TO deal with strikes or agitations
having aspects of violence. The
visible police concentrated on
civil crimes and the conventional
policing of public order and
traffic. The invisible police took
care of the rest. Nevertheless. the
minister Of interior told me that
Mussolini's regime spent. in the
present-day equivalent of the lire.
20 billions annually for police
forces. The present democratic
government spends 162 millions!
But at that, it takes 10000 police
men and some $1,000 carabinieri
to keep italy within the law.
Signor Scelba is referred to
twith admiration or distaste) as
Italy's strong man." The distaSte
seems to me to be part Of the
modern fiction that weakness is a
desirable quality of democracy.
Histery is paved with the bones
of democracies that have thought
so. 4s*
sstRelessed by the Bell Syndicate, 1nc.)
Canadian Faces Custer