Synopses & Reviews
Italy from Within by Richard G. Massock - Foreword Some of this the writer witnessed or experienced in the ten years that he was a correspondent in the Foreign Service of The Associated Press. Part of it he heard from the trusted friends that every newspaperman must have. Some of it is the fruit of research in the writings of others. The bibliography of Fascism is too extensive for publication here. Helpful are The Fascist Government of Italy, by Herbert W. Schneider fascist Rule in Italy, by Vera Michele Dean Mussolinfs Italy, by Herman Finer What Next O Duce by Beatrice Baskerville, to mention only a few of the many excellent books. This does not pretend to be a definitive review of the history of Fascist Italy, or even of the shifting policies of Mussolini. It is intended to help the reader understand what has happened to Italy under Mussolinis dictatorship and what may happen within the country before the last bomb is dropped in World War II. For that reason, a conscious effort was made to keep it factual and objective. In this connection, special appreciation goes to Charles A. Livingood, former United States commer cial attache at Rome, for invaluable background information on Italian economy. In the mention of Italians, it has unfortunately been neces sary to omit many names in order to spare the individuals from persecution by the police. Some Italian acquaintances of the writer already have been interned. None of them is mentioned in this book. Some diplomatic sources of information remain anonymous because of no wish to embarrass them in their careers. Contents PACK Foreword v CHAPTER L Prologue i H. Murder Mystery 1 1 III. The Domestic Statesman 27 IV. French Interlude 44 V.The Urge to Empire 52 VL Spanish Adventure 71 VII. Red, Black, and Brown 80 VIIL The Peacemaker 94 IX. Tunisia, Corsica, Djibouti 103 X. The Lambeth Walk 1 1 9 XI. TheTwoRomes 130 XII. Private Lives 141 XIII. Albanian Grab 1 5 XIV. Peacemaker No More 167 XV. The Nonbelligerent 184 XVI. The Jackal in Lions Clothing 209 XVII. Of Victory, Caesar, and Spies 229 XVIII. Greeks Without Gifts 255 vii vili CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIX. The Defender of Islam 274 XX. In German Hands 287 XXI. The Reluctant Kong 306 XXII. Its a Long Way to Russia 3 14 XXHI. Bread and Bootleggers 326 XXIV. A Japanese Invitation 340 XXV. The American Fifth Column 362 XXVI. After Mussolini . . . 378 Index 393 Italy from Within I Prologue The poet and the journalist shifted their chairs a bit to make another place at their small table and beckoned to me as I entered the crowded restaurant near the Piazza di Spagna. Usually I found them at the same table at about the same midday hour. They lunched together because, the writing of verse paying even less under Fascism than it does under democracy, the poet collaborated with the newspaperman in the fabrication of movie scenarios for the Italian Hollywood, Cine Citta. The journalist confided to me that he was a littera teur of the films because he got tired of grinding out pieces for his paper on Albions perfidy and the warmongering plu tocracy of the United States. For the films he could, at least, invent his own fictions, after he was done with rewriting those of the government propaganda mill for his newspaper. They were, in brief, young intellectuals, educated in the university. They were not, therefore, typical perhaps of the Italian nation as a whole, but they were thelast Italians with whom I talked before Mussolini declared war on the United States...