"The aim of Italy's foreign policy," says Harold Nicolson, British M. P., essayist, novelist, onetime diplomat, "is to acquire by negotiation an importance greater than can be supplied by her own physical strength. It is thus the antithesis of the German system, since instead of basing diplomacy on power she bases power on diplomacy. It is the antithesis of the French system, since instead of striving to secure permanent allies against a permanent enemy, she regards her allies and her enemies as interchangeable. It is the antithesis of the British system, since it is not durable credit that she seeks for, but immediate advantage. Her conception, moreover, of the Balance of Power is not identical with the British conception; for whereas in Great Britain that doctrine is interpreted as opposition to any country who may seek to dominate Europe, in Italy it is desired as a balance of such equipoise that her own weight can tilt the scale."
Last week Italy not only suddenly removed six Cabinet members but went a long way toward changing allies when Il Duce violently shook up the Fascist hierarchy. The side-changing had been hopefully expected by Great Britain and France for some weeks, but few had supposed so many big Government heads would roll in accompaniment.
A favorite phrase among Italian Fascisti is "changing of the guard." It refers to a supposedly fixed policy of rotating the Party's big men in the State's big jobs; actually it is usually used to make crucial political shifts seem casual and routine. Last week, when Italy's hierarchy was violently shaken up, the phrase was shouted loud on Rome's seven hills. But no amount of inspired pooh-poohing could make the changes unimportant.
Out went:
>Lieut. General Achille Starace, Secretary of the Fascist Party, who for eight years has stood close enough behind Benito Mussolini to tickle his shoulder blades with a stiletto. With sense of humor zero and self-confidence unlimited, Fascist Starace earned the nickname "Pantherman" by feats of physique—jumping a horse over a car, pole vaulting, diving over parallel bars, plunging through rings of fire. In his gaudy office, where he is protected by an always-loaded, pearl-handled revolver and by a solid gold Virgin, he has thought up many a mystic fetish, many a fiendish thuggery. He abolished the handshake in Italy. He designed the black Fascist uniform. He is generally supposed to have been one of the inventors of the castor-oil technique of punishing political recalcitrants. And he has been one of the most important nuts keeping Rome tightly screwed to the Axis.
>Minister of Public Culture Oboardo Dino Alfieri. One of the founders of Fascism, a friend of Mussolini since World War I, smoothie, trouble shooter, woman-charmer (Italians say he could make an Englishwoman feel beautiful and an Ethiopian feel important), he consistently boosted the Axis in the Italian press—until the war began.