Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches (November 1914-August 1923)Mussolini, Benito
History
Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches (November 1914-August 1923)
Mussolini, Benito
Fascism -- Italy; Italy -- Politics and government -- 1914-1945; Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945; Partito nazionale fascista (Italy)
Some people say, Would not this League of Nations be a substitute for
victory? No! on the other hand, it presupposes victory. Wilson has
talked of absolute victory.
It is said, in a Socialist review, that a League of Nations is
impossible if the Allies gain a military victory, because the desire for
revenge would lurk in the depths of the German mind. Now there are three
hypotheses as regards the way in which the conflict may end. The first
is the victory of the enemy, and this has already fallen through. If
this had come about, there would not have been a League of Nations, but
a master at Berlin and slaves in the rest of Europe, which would then
have become a German colony. The second is a war which ends in neither
victory nor defeat; and this is the most repugnant and inhuman of all,
as it would leave all the problems unsolved, and give a peace which was
only a truce. The third is the solution which is now shaping itself
gloriously upon the horizon—our victory. There is no danger of the
spirit of revenge being fostered by the Germans to-morrow, because we
allies in war would remain allies in peace. Germany will find herself
face to face with the same coalition which defeated her, and will have
to resign herself to the _fait accompli_. The League of Nations will be
formed without Germany, against Germany, or with Germany when she has
expiated her crime by being defeated.
Some people say: “Does it not seem very dangerous to go back to
universality, after the experiences of the past?” Ernest Renan must have
been up against this problem when he wrote: “The nation which entertains
problems of the religious and social order is always weak. Every country
which dreams of a kingdom of God, lives on general ideas and carries out
work in the interests of the universe, sacrifices through this its own
particular destiny and weakens and destroys its efficiency as a
territorial power. It was thus with Judea, Greece and Italy. It will,
perhaps, be thus with France.”
Renan was a great man, but his prophecy has not been fulfilled. France
during the nineteenth century entertained universal ideas, but with the
outbreak of war she recovered her national spirit. Internationalism may
be dangerous when a single nation advocates it, but to-day all the
nations of the world are seeking each other, in order to lay the
foundations of a lasting and pacific means of co-existence. Besides
this, the racial, historical and moral sense of every nation has been
developed by the war. It is not a paradox but a reality that the war,
while it has made us find ourselves and exalted the national spirit,
has, at the same time, carried us beyond those boundaries which we have
defended and conquered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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