Benito Mussolini's last interview as Duce was published last week. * On June 6, a month and a half before his downfall, Il Duce talked to a correspondent of Lugano's Carriere del Ticino, a minor Swiss, Italian-language newspaper. He was suffering from stomach ulcers, appeared lean and sad. But, above all, he seemed anxious to justify his great mistake:
"Times are hard. . . . [Italy] could have remained outside the struggle. As a neutral, she probably would have had great financial and commercial advantages. But Italy . . . had proclaimed her vital rights and placed before the conscience of the...