The Times | 19 Dicembre, 1935

Duce’s Speech Of Defiance FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT ROME, DEC. 18 Inaugturating to-day the third of the townships created on the reclaimed Pontine Marshes, Signor Mussolini told the labourers and country-folk of Pontinia that Italy would persist in her Abvssinian policy until she issued victorious. Addressed as it was mainly to r ustic hearers, the speech was expressed in simple terms, but its political import was none the less obviously directed to a wider audience. It was at once interpreted by several of the invited guests as forecasting if not a total rejection at least a demand for the radical modificdtion of the Anglo- French proposals. After referring to the work of land reclamation in the Pontine Marshes, Signor Mussolini said:- I wish to tell you that we will not send into distant and barbarous lands the flower of our youth if we are not assured that it will be pro- tected by the tricolour of the Fatherlanid. I wish also to say that the Italian people-a people little known in the world, where there are still circulating the old commonplaces of a false literature-the Italian people, which draws its nourishment from the soil with hard daily labour, is capable of resisting a vcry long siege, especially when it is certain in the clearness and tranquillity of its conscience that right is on its side while wrong is on the side of that Europe which in present events is doing dishonour to itself. That war which we have begun on African soil is a war of civilization and libera- tion. It is the war of the people. The Italian people feels it as its own. It is the war of the poor, of the disinherited, of the proletariat. Against us is ranged the front of conservatism, of selfishness, and of hypocrisy. Against this front also we have engaged in our stern struggle and we will carry it through to the end. A people of 44,000,000, not merely of inhabitants but also of souls, does not allow itself to be throttled and still less to be tricked with impunity. Sure of this unanimous profound consent of all the Italian people-men, women, and children, the whole nation living in its historic and eternal expression-surc of this consent, the regime will go straight ahead. It could not and does not wish to do otherwise. This is a trial in which we are all engaged from the first to the last, but it is a trial which is testing the virility of the Italian people. It is a test, my comrades, from which we shall most certainly issue victorious. Time will be needed, but when a struggle has been engaged in, conirades, it is not so much time that counts, but the victory. In particular the opening words quoted above have been fastened on here as showing that the main preoccupation of Signor Mussolini is that of security. Many experienced observers believe that most of the territorial proposals embodied in the Anglo-French proposals would be accepted without difficulty if only Italy obtained from gendarmerie or other forces an effective guarantee that her settlers would not continue to be exposed to the raids of irresponsible Rases. FASCIST GRAND COUNCIL DECEMBER 19 Last night’s meeting of the Fascist Grand Council ended at I o’clock this morning, and half an hour later a comnurnttiqlei was issued stating:- The Fascist Grand Council, presided over by the Duce, held the third meeting of the autumn sessiory of r ear XIV. on December 18, the thirty-first day of the economic siege, at 10 p.m. at thc Palazzo Venezia. The Duce, interpreter of the sentiments of the Fascist Grand Council, greeted Mlarshal of Italy de Bono, whose name is linked with the re- conquest of Adowa and Makale. The Fascist Grand Council then examined the political situation in relation to the Franco-British proposals. After giving the names of those who spoke, including Marshal de Bono, the cotnhntniqrte concludes: – The Grand Council will meet again on Friday, December 20, at 10 p.m. The meeting ended at I a.m. Senator Marconi, who was reported to be unwell to-day, was present at the meeting. DUCE’S SPEECH OF DEFIANCE ITALIAN PURPOSE UNMOVED CLAIMS IN ETIIIOPIA