THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
* state socialism ', proclaiming that ' the state must be
deprived of all economic functions', and brought back into
line with 6 Manchester school economics '. He reassured
the monarchy, the army and the conservatives by dismissing
the ' previous question ' of a republican regime : c The
republican problem is not an essential question ; to-day a
democratic republic would not be enough ; once started
the people would go much further.' He did not exclude the
possibility of collaborating with the right-wing socialists,
provided they £ straightened their aim ', and he tried to win
over the Popolari by passing., in spite of an anti-clerical
speech by Marinetti, a motion in favour of free education,
one of the Church's principal demands. In all these
adjustments of programme the dominating note was an
increasingly blatant nationalism. For the time being his
sentiments were reminiscent of d'Annunzio's Naval Odes.
4 The Italian people must be expansionist, and adopt a bold
naval policy. Italy's future must be on the seas.'
A few weeks later, at the beginning of July, he outlined
his programme of foreign policy. In this department the
work of recasting the c fascism of the first hour 31 was com-
plete. In March 1919 at the Piazza San Sepolcro meeting
he had accepted the principles of the League of Nations,
explaining them in such a way that nothing was left of them.2
Now he declared thatc fascism believes in neither the vitality
nor the principles of the so-called League of Nations'.
He demanded the revision of the Treaty of Versailles,
wanted Italy to * withdraw gradually from the group of
plutocratic western nations' and draw closer to the * enemy
nations ', Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, and demand in the
colonial spherec the nation's rights and needs'. In February
1921 at Trieste, the home of the powerful armament firms
which had subsidized him heavily, after recalling the July
1920 programme, he finished with an impressive peroration :
6 Fate demands that the Mediterranean should belong to us
again. Fate demands that Rome should once more lead the
civilization of Western Europe. Let us raise the flag of
empire, of our imperialism.'
1 Fascismo della prima orat i.e. Fascism of IQIQ
2 Pp- 35-36-