THE MARCH ON ROME 257
Italians ? :> We have no hesitation in replying, " The
fascist state". How are we to give the nation this
government ? In this way : if they have not become
completely soft-witted in Rome they must summon the
Chamber early in November., pass the new electoral
law, and call on the people to give their votes during
December.'
Any further parliamentary crisis would be futile. If
the government did not follow the method indicated by
Mussolini, fascism would have to adopt the other method :
c Observe that our tactics are perfectly open. In any
case, when one is attacking an entire state, one can hardly
stop at the sort of petty conspiracy which remains secret
up to the last moment. We have to give orders to hun-
dreds of thousands of men, and it would be expecting
too much to hope to keep them dark. So long as it is
necessary, our cards are on the table.'
Mussolini then expounded home and foreign policy :
c We shall not give liberty, even if the demand for it is
couched in the faded forms of immortal principles !
This election frippery is not the only thing that separates
us from democracy. Do people want to vote ? Well,
let them vote. Let us all vote till we are sick of it, till
we go crazy ! Nobody wants to abolish universal suffrage.
But we are going to introduce a policy of severity and
reaction. We divide the Italians into three categories,
the indifferent, who await events at home, the sympa-
thisers, who will be allowed to come and go, the enemy,
who will not.'
As to foreign policy, he again summarized his usual
programme, unaltered t1
* By hurling the Italians as a single force towards world
tasks, by turning the Mediterranean into an Italian lake,
by allying ourselves with those who dwell on the Mediter-
ranean and driving out those who are its parasites, by
accomplishing this difficult, long, cyclopean work, we
1 pp. 236-238.