No indictment of a national leader could possibly be more damning than that levelled against Mussolini by Mr. Winston Churchill in his broadcast to Italy on Monday. It is to be hoped that large numbers of Talians heard it, though the resteietions plied upon listening in to British broadcasts, while not so stringent as those of Germany, may have been suMeient {0 deter many. The Prime Minister denounced Mussolini ax the man who -ayainst_ the wishes of the Pope, the King, the Army and the people plunged his country into a war to further Hitler's aims, in the hopes of securing some scraps which the victorious Germany might have accorded him. It is known that the war was unpopular with the masses of the Italians from the outset, It is known that the adventure against the Greeks was undertaken against the sound advice of Italian military experts, and the pinchbeck Caesar who over vole their opinions has seen his forces, nuimerieally superior to the Greeks, beaten fag he never expected them to be. Involved in the Balkans as he now is, he is unable to send the assistance to Graziani for which thal commander has been pleading for weeks past, The vesul(is that the much vaunted coming invasion of Egypt, the obliteration of the British forces there, and the seizure the Suez Canal appear to be fading away Wiko the dream of an ambitious but incom= petent man, Had Mussolini kept out of the wer, and devoted his attention to building up his country alony the lines which have proved successful he might have gone down in his tory as a great man who gave his people peace while improving their lot. Tt may be said for him that originally he ried to keep out of the war, Hitler agreed that at any yate for the time being he should do so, and there ix nothing in evidence to show that he asked Mussolini to intervene when he had established German superiority over France Jast_summer. The fact is that Mussolini mazed by the sttddenness of the German vielory, fancied the war was all over save the shouting, and hurried to get in in time to bbe able to 18 im to the spoils. thought he was backing a certainty, and in his vanity supposed that, hud the war ended when he thought it would, he would have achieved much glory for himself and more fervitory for his country, He completely failed to understand the British, to reali their great determination that come what may they would continue to exist, and that the great Empire which they have constructed should not be torn from them without a struggle unparalleled in the history of man= Kind, A more eximinally stupid piece of statesmanship than Mussolini's entry into the war cannot now be conceived. That is em= phasized not because of the stresses which the Allies have been securing, but because nothing can be more foolish than to drag a country into war, especially when public sentiment is definitely against it, and against the people to whose aid he fancied he wi going.
Does Mr. Churehill's broadcast presage in= creased onslaughts against Taly? It is believed and hoped that it docs. Whatever sympathy exists for a people, whose gracious way of living has endeared ahem to. many suddenly thrust into war to satisfy the i ordinate ambitions of an overweening cit, it will not permit of the Allies relaxing, their efforts to smash the nation which is s0 obviously the weaker partner of the Axis. 'The destruction, loss of life and the misery which has already been caused, and which may be expected to follow, are to be directly attributed to the folly of a' man who believed ho was great, and who indeed might have been had he followed other courses. But his stature has dwindled considerably, even in evil as compared with Hitler, and should the Allies emerge victorious, as there is every reason to believe they will, he will have brought the greatest disaster' upon his coun that it, has experienced in the whole of Mls history. 'There is, therefore, much reason in the round: condemnation of Mussolini, in which Mr. Churchill has indulged. Tt may' not have any immediate effect, but it is just og well that every possible endeavour should
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