Excerpts from the Speech to the Provincial Hierarchy of the Fascist Party
By Benito Mussolini
"Peace could have been preserved if Britain had agreed to a constructive revising of treaties, instead of initiating—with the supine complicity of France—its policy of encirclement against Germany, which they have done not for the purpose of leaving the most German city of Danzig to the Poles, but for the purpose of overthrowing German political and military power. Peace could have been preserved if England had not rejected all attempts to move closer to Germany, which had gone so far as to sign a naval pact which placed itself in a situation of clear and permanent inferiority. Peace could have also been preserved in the last hours of August 1939 if England—under pressure from the Polish Ambassador who went to the Foreign Office at 11 pm on September 1—had not advanced an absolutely unacceptable condition for joining the conference proposed by Italy, an unacceptable condition because it would be humiliating, namely that the German troops already on the march should not only stop but retreat back to their lines of departure.
What happened in the following months is something we all have experienced, so it is superfluous to recall it.
Never in the history of mankind has there ever been such a colossal wave of mystification and lies like the one unleashed by the government and media organs of Great Britain during the campaigns in Poland, Norway, Belgium and Holland, which ended with the defeat of the British army and the French army. Moreover, the defeat of the French army was unprecedented due to its immense size and due to the almost unthinkable rapidity in which it was defeated. If the practice of lying is the most suitable system for stupefying a people and hardening their spirits, then one can safely say that the people of Great Britain have reached an indisputable and unsurpassable record. France stumbled, but it was still far from defeated when Italy—in order to remain loyal to the letter and spirit of the Alliance and to finally break the bars of her prison in her own sea—entered the war on June 10, and no one in the world could have foreseen that the French army, celebrated as the strongest in all of Europe, would be so quickly liquefied like snow under the sun. After two weeks France signed an armistice and stopped fighting, although they were forced to resume fighting a couple times in order to defend themselves from attacks by their former English ally in places like Oran and Dakar."
"Our entry into the war has shown that the Axis was not and is not an empty word. From June to today our collaboration with Germany is truly comradely and totalitarian. We march side by side.
This union of two peoples becomes ever more intimate and extends to all fields of military, economic, political and spiritual activity. The identity of views regarding the present and the future is perfect.
My meetings with the Führer are but the consecration of this complete fusion of our conceptions. When I meet the Führer I see in him not only the Chief creator of Greater Germany, the commander of armies who has seen his brilliant strategic conceptions—sometimes considered more reckless than daring—confirmed by victory, but also—and I would like to say in particular—the instigator of the National Socialist movement, the revolutionary who has awakened the German people, which has made him the protagonist of a new conception of the world greatly similar to that of Italian Fascism.
The identity of views is the result of this revolutionary premise; it stems from the meeting of two Revolutions that are just beginning their journey in the international and social fields.
Everything concerning the developments of the Tripartite Pact in the West or in the Danube Basin is followed by mutual agreement; likewise with regard to the future position of France.
It is now clear that the Axis did not want to make a peace of reprisal or rancor, but it is also understood that certain demands must be met.
These demands, which are more than legitimate, could have been the object of discussion long before the war if those ridiculous and tragic men had not imposed their "jamais".
When they began to reconsider, it was too late. Italy had already chosen its path since May 1939. The die was cast. But precisely because of their legitimacy, our demands must be accepted without compromise or provisional solutions, which we categorically reject from this moment on.
Only after this total clarification will it be possible—in the orbit of the new Europe which will be created by the Axis—to start a new chapter in the history of relations between Italy and France, which have become so agitated.
It is superfluous to confirm that, just like the armistice, peace will be shared; that is to say, it will be an Axis peace. To consecrate the fraternity of Italo-German arms I asked and obtained from the Führer direct participation in the battle against Great Britain with airplanes and submarines.
I hasten to add that Germany did not need our contribution in that arena. The valor of her fighters on land, sea and air, her industrial power, her organizational and technical ability, and the efficiency of her workforce are all well-known facts. The German production numbers for airplanes and submarines are truly exceptional and in continuous progress. Nevertheless I am grateful to the Führer for accepting my offer: nothing more strongly solidifies the relations between peoples than spilling common blood and enduring shared sacrifice, especially when they are animated by absolute loyalty and by shared interests and ideals.
I am certain that our pilots and our submariners will honour our flag."
"It is on this hatred, which can be defined as grotesque, that Greek politics has been based upon in recent years; a policy of absolute complicity with Great Britain. Nor could it be otherwise, given that the King of Greece is English, the political class is English, and the bourse — in both the figurative and literal sense — is also English.
This complicity, which manifested itself in many ways, and which in time will be irrefutably documented, was a continuous act of hostility against Italy.
The papers found by the German General Staff in France, at Vitry-la-Charité, demonstrates that since May Greece had offered to the Franco-British forces all its air and naval bases. It was necessary to put an end to this situation. It is for this reason that our troops crossed the Greco-Albanian border on October 28."
"Under these conditions the Party must resume its function with unaltered increasing stringency, valiantly engaging its battle on the home front, on the political, economic and spiritual level.
The Party must free itself and free the Nation from the remnants of this burdensome petty-bourgeois, and by this we mean it in the broadest sense that we give to this term. The Party must maintain and accentuate the climate of hard times, become closer to the people, protecting their moral health and material existence.
Certain pacifism of a cerebraloid and universalistic nature must be carefully monitored and fought. It is outdated, especially in this era of iron and cannons. Nothing else exists nor can exist outside of our supreme war aims.
The Germans and Italians form a block of 150 million resolute, compact and determined men, from Norway to Libya, in the heart of Europe. This block already has victory in its hands."
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