Onty a few weeks ago a new name emerged in the catalogue of the statesmen and politicians to whose care the precarious destinies of Europe are confided. This was Signor Mussolini who at the Jast election in Italy came into power with hardly a political party to support him but with the whole strength and youth of a nation ready to back him to the bitter end. It would be too much to expect the average Englishman to concern himself intimately with the internal politics of Italy or any other foreign country. The most the man-in-the-street has had to trouble himself with is that at no distant date after the conclusion of hostilities Italy was faced with a serious Bolshevik rising, a time when factories flying the red flag were held by communists against the government forces, and it seemed at certain moments as if the fate of the country trembled in the balance as between sanity and an adhere ence to the tenets of Moscow. The danger was averted, and then a change came over the spirit of the situation. Little by little the outside public came to hear of a new body in the country known as the Fascisti, a body little understood at first, but later on when they were found to be coming constantly into collision with the socialist and communist groups, a body to call for attention. It was, as a matter of fact, young Italy asserting itself, a young people full of healthy, patriotic, national sentiment, a people refusing to barter their proud heritage for the shibboleths of Moscow. There was bloodshed, for the Fascisti were no mere politicians, but largely if not altogether composed of men who had been in the armies which faced the Austro-German. onslaughts and {nally drove the enemy headlong from his trenches, and the lessons of force they learned in these days were quickly applied to the communists when found spreading their doctrine of subversion of order. So the Fascisti became known beyond their country, and it only required the lapse of time to bring their creator likewise to the fore.
The creation of the Fascisti was the work of Signor Mussolini, the present Premier of Italy, a man whose name now echoes throughout the council rooms of Europe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.