Mussolini Trionfante

Forty trainloads of rural Fascists rumbled into Genoa the Superb last week, joined the excited Genoese in watching for an imposing procession of ships which steamed at length into their great hill-cradled harbor. As this squadron of naval and merchant ships approached, a lone figure wearing an admiral's hat with a towering white plume was finally discerned upon the flagship's bridge. For two hours thereafter thousands of sirens blew without ceasing.

The admiral's hat reposed, of course, upon the semi-bald Premier Mussolini. A brilliant ministerial uniform encased his purposeful figure. A broad green cordon held the blazing order of SS Maurizio e Lazzaro suspended upon his chest.

Il Duce had come to tell the assembled Fascists that Genoa's commerce has recently outstripped that of Marseilles, heretofore the most important Mediterranean port. He had come to exult over the fact that Italy is now constructing more ships* than any other nation except Britain./- He had come to fire Italian hearts with the purpose to make of the Mediterranean an Italian lake.

For five hours 30,000 Fascists stood waiting in the Piazza Ferrari, the largest square in Genoa, to hear Signer Mussolini. He came, stirred them to frenzy, departed, slept for the night in the Palazzo Ducale, once the Palace of the Doges.

Next day he was acclaimed at the vast Odero Naval Shipyard, helped inaugurate a Genoa-Palermo hydroplane service, inspected several regiments in commemoration of the eleventh anniversary of Italy's entry into the World War.

While Il Duce triumphed at Genoa, King Vittorio Emanuele embarked at Civita Vecchia (port of Rome) upon the royal yacht Savoia for Sardinia. Escorting the Savoia steamed four dreadnoughts, three cruisers, 22 destroyers.

*300,000 tons.

/-840,000 tons.