Word: duces
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...King by the Grace of God and the Will of the People" is what astute, courageous, popular Vittorio Emanuele III was long before Il Duce added the title of "Emperor." Last week His Majesty surprised casual foreign observers-not Italians-by making Adolf Hitler's visit to Italy the occasion for visibly demonstrating that Benito Mussolini is not the whole cheese in Italy-although he is of course The Big Cheese, as Neville Chamberlain is in England...
Mussolini can stay friendly with Britain and France even though he agrees to the Rome-Berlin axis, an apparently contradictory set-up, but only if Il Duce refrains from farther territorial expansion. But, Dr. Salvemini declared, since Hitler has gained enormous prestige by his Austrian adventures, Mussolini must keep the Italian masses contented by more victories, and these, for geographical reasons, must be in the Mediterranean region--in direct conflict with British and French away...
Among the most startling aspects of the book is the author's treatment of Mussolini and Hitler. The absolute authority of Il Duce in Italy is emphatically denied. The power of the royalist elements, the Vatican, and the army under Badoglio are so strongly emphasized that poor Benito appears to be merely a rather weak prime minister. Here, it seems, Mr. Young has jumped overboard trying to prove his case. As for Hitler, it is claimed that he was deified by the German people when Hindenburg was no longer adequate as a god. Unity in the Reich is a myth...
...shown awarding the Victor Emmanuel Fertility Cup and other similar awards to a group of buxom mass-production mothers, after which public enemy number one comes forward to bewail the fact in a variety of ingenious ways that she can produce only one at a time. Il Duce appears again, as one of the "Four Little Angels of Peace," the others being Hitler, Chamberlain, and an anonymous Jap. They all demonstrate their benevolence by treacherously and amusingly destroying one another. There is a denunciation of war, carried out by rather obscure ballet, and jibes are distributed to the Vassar girl...
...over his head in international waters. Since 1927 he has been a puppet of Mussolini. Italian non-interest-bearing loans bolster Albanian Government finances, the army is Italian-officered and Italy is Albania's best customer. Thus the wedding had to have the official Mussolini O.K., and Il Duce showed that he strongly approved this latest Italian-Hungarian-Albanian tie-up by having his son-in-law. Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano, interrupt his Franco-Italian talks in Rome to bustle across to Tirana to act as Zog's witness...