$20,000,000 Visit

"King by the Grace of God and the Will of the People" is what astute, courageous, popular Vittorio Emanuele III was long before Il Duce added the title of "Emperor." Last week His Majesty surprised casual foreign observers--not Italians--by making Adolf Hitler's visit to Italy the occasion for visibly demonstrating that Benito Mussolini is not the whole cheese in Italy--although he is of course The Big Cheese, as Neville Chamberlain is in England.

Up to a few weeks before the 1922 March on Rome, Fascist Mussolini was an avowed Republican pledged to upset the Throne, and he came out as a Monarchist in a public speech only a few weeks before the March. Significantly the Fascist marchers on Rome were poorly armed, whereas His Majesty had mobilized powerful army units, held discreetly in barracks and side streets of Rome. Editor Mussolini remained at Milan 400 miles away until after the March, then accepted the telegraphed invitation of Vittorio Emanuele to come to Rome and form "His Majesty's Government" as Premier.

In the recent Ethiopian war it was a Fascist, Marshal de Bono, who went out to begin a "Fascist conquest'' of this part of Africa. It was a prominent Monarchist, Marshal Badoglio, who, when the war bogged down under de Bono, was sent out, and ended the war as an "Italian victory." The King has always acted so as to give fullest scope to the energy and talents of II Duce, who has always acted with the greatest respect for Vittorio Emanuele III. Not long ago a Fascist official told of having suggested on a certain point that the Premier simply ring up the King by telephone, told of Il Duce's reproving reply: "Such lack of respect is not to be shown His Majesty! Audience must always be sought in advance." Last week Italy's reigning King-Emperor and her ruling Dictator joined in visibly correcting what has become outside Italy a pretty general misconception.

Adolf Hitler, who combines in his single person the roles of Chancellor (Premier) and Reichsfuehrer or Realmleader (a modernized euphemism for King), was met on the station platform in Rome last week by Il Re Vittorio Emanuele and II Duce Benito Mussolini. Der Fuhrer gave the Nazi salute, II Re the military salute and II Duce the Fascist salute (see p. 23). Afterward the German shook hands with his Italian hosts, and then Premier Mussolini effaced himself, slipping out and driving off in a small car to his office.

Meanwhile, the King-Emperor and the Realmleader entered the first of a procession of State victorias. Into the others piled Italian and German statesmen and officers. Then off all clattered, escorted by mounted cuirassiers of the ancient House of Savoy in gleaming breastplates.

Reputedly $20,000,000 was spent by Il Duce's orders on the visit of the Fuhrer. Even the railway station at which he arrived was especially built outside the walls of Rome, connected up with the Eternal City by the brand new Viale Adolfo Hitler. This stately avenue and the Via Dell'Impero led the King-Emperor and Realmleader past several of the most interesting relics of ancient Rome, all floodlighted-- for Il Duce had stagemanaged that the Fuehrer should drive past at 8:30 p. m. Soon the German Dictator sat up as though startled and amazed by the vast Roman Colosseum which seemed to be afire, glowing within by the light of thousands of red torches, while in each arch an Italian soldier stood at attention, silhouetted in full war gear; his steel helmet sharply outlined.

The King-Emperor took the Realmleader not to the Villa Torlonia (the palace in which Mussolini lives on a long rental lease), but to the House of Savoy's majestic Palazzo del Quirinale. * Here Der Fuehrer was lodged in the suite of Crown Prince Umberto, who makes his home in Naples.

Business is Business. In Rome almost every building flew the Italian and the German flag, excepting Jewish shops and homes, the Senate, the Chamber, other public buildings and the State's streetcars and busses. All these flew only the Italian flag. In town for the occasion were 46,000 police operatives, their wives and children --whereas Rome ordinarily gets along on 16,000.

It has always been customary in Italy to plug mailboxes with heavy metal fittings on each State occasion, since for half a century Italians have been prone to "mail a bomb" timed to explode just as its intended object is scheduled to pass the mailbox. To this precaution against an old Italian custom was added last week search of sewers and cellars for bombs, banishment from Rome for a few days or jailing of all suspect persons, and an arrangement whereby one or more police agents stood in the hall of every building past which the German Realmleader was driven. Such is the Business called Dictatorship.

First Day. An Italian stiletto, or "Fascist Honor Dagger" as it is called, was worn by Adolf Hitler, emerging on the first morning of his visit, after having received Benito Mussolini for a half-hour conference at the King's Palace. Der Fuhrer laid a wreath at the Pantheon (royal tombs), another at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a third at the Fascist Altar on the Capitoline Hill. Lunch was at the King's Palace, followed by a go-minute conference in Il Duce's office, and then the two Dictators drove to Rome's airport. On one side of this half-mile-square field naval cadets dressed & undressed a full-rigged ship (dummy). Fascist youths 50,000 strong, from 6-year-old Sons of the Wolf to 18-year-old Young Fascists, drilled to the music of 2,600 trumpets which at one point blew the Wedding March from Lohengrin. This caused irrepressible Italians to crack of the Dictators: "Are they exchanging wedding rings?"

German tourists and German residents of Italy, meanwhile, gathered 4,000 strong in the Circus of Maxentius, were then briefly addressed by the Fuehrer, before he closed his day with a State dinner at the King's Palace. Der Fuehrer's keynote:

"Hail to His Majesty King Vittorio Emanuele, and to that great spirit, our dear friend Benito Mussolini, Victory Hail!"

Second Day. During the night the Realmleader slept on his green private train between Rome and Naples, the King-Emperor slept on his blue private train, and Il Duce was up until 2 a. m. on his private train, arranging last-minute details of the morrow's great Italian Navy display --190 warboats totaling 300.000 tons, the largest European concentration of war craft since the World War.

Up early, Premier Mussolini went out first to the capital ship Conte di Cavour, received the Realmleader and the King-Emperor when they came aboard. The Rex, Roma, Saturnia and eleven other Italian liners carried members of the House of Savoy, bigwigs of Germany and Italy. In one of the fastest naval getaways ever executed, the Italian fleet dashed out of the harbor with intervals of only a few seconds between each ship, got away in 25 minutes flat, each warboat dipping colors to the Conte di Cavour,

After some spectacular maneuvers off Capri, the cruisers Fiume and Zara opened up against the radio-controlled target cruiser San Marco, firing live 8-inch shells at a range of eleven miles. An airplane circling above the target ship radioed to the Conte di Cavour that "the third salvo of shells hit the target squarely." Two planes then blotted out the San Marco with a smoke screen like the drawing of a quick curtain.

Orator Mussolini recently boasted that Italy today has the largest, most powerful submarine fleet in the world. German Navy experts in the entourage of the Fuehrer said they believed there had never been such a submarine display as Italy offered last week. One moment the sea was alive with 85 submarines advancing in nine columns toward the Conte di Cavour. Suddenly all dived, vanishing completely in 75 seconds, then eight minutes later all upped into sight still in perfect formation, and all firing their deck guns at a total of 1,000 shots per minute--pandemonium.

That night in Naples' famed old San Carlo Opera, now brilliantly refurbished, Der Fuhrer, Il Re and Il Duce sat through the extremely loud Aida, which is all about the daughter of a King of Ethiopia.

Third Day. Spain's former King Alfonso XIII, Afghanistan's former King Amanulla were among 50,000 spectators who watched Mussolini, now back in Rome with Hitler, show off the Italian Army, Fascist Militia, armed Colonial Police, Italian Labor Corps, etc. In the march past, with the army and militia doing the Roman Step (goosestep), were 30,500 men, 2,500 horses and mules, 1,320 tanks, armored cars and trucks, 600 guns and 200 mortars. Italian motorized equipment has several times shown itself superior to German during the war in Spain, and not only Hitler but all his entourage keenly eyed every Italian unit. For the first time Italians saw their poison-gas and flame-throwing equipment paraded, looked glum as they watched the weird figures of soldiers swathed in gas masks and asbestos suits. Lunch was at the German Embassy, dinner at the Palace of Governor of Rome Prince Piero Colonna, and afterward 100,000 jammed the Borghese Gardens. There the King and Queen and Dictators sat listening to Maestro Marinuzzi of the Royal Opera conduct a choir of 6.000 accompanied by 4,000 musicians in what Italians crowed was "The Largest Concert in the World."

Fourth Day. Rain. Had it not rained the Italian Air Force were to have demolished with bombs a dummy village built on the outskirts of Rome. With the ceiling at a bare 1,000 feet, the ground wispy with mist, the air display was postponed and Adolf Hitler drove about Rome visiting museums, glimpsing at a distance St. Peter's and the Papal State. The Pope made no advances toward A. Hitler, closed his museums while the German tourists were in Rome (see p. 48). At week's end, the Nazis gone, the Vatican ordered them reopened. That night came the end State dinner. This was "at Mussolini's office"--i.e., in one of the grand salons of Palazzo Venezia. In their private talks the Dictators had undoubtedly made various secret arrangements last week, but at this public function they exchanged wide-open pledges in the form of toasts. These were anything but informal, each toast a State paper, arrived at by negotiation, and read off from a printed text. They were of about equal length, but Der Fuehrer read at about double the speed of Il Duce.

In veiled language Italy's Premier toasted in terms which the Germans construed as giving them "a free hand in Czechoslovakia,'' although that was reading a great deal into Il Duce's words: "Germany and Italy have left behind them the Utopia to which Europe had blindly committed her destinies in order to seek between themselves and to seek together with others a manner of international living which may, with equity, set up more effective guaranties of justice, security and peace for all.

"This may be attained only when the elementary rights of every people to live, work and defend itself are loyally recognized, and political balance corresponds with the reality of the historic forces which constitute and determine it."

Whether or not the above meant what the Germans claimed. Dictator Hitler in his toast made one of the most unequivocal pledges ever given. Der Fuehrer likened his words to a "testament"--everyone recalling how millions of Russians heed the Testament of Lenin, millions of Chinese the Testament of Sun Yatsen.

"It is my unshakable will and also my political testament to the German people." cried Hitler, "to consider inviolable for all time the frontiers of the Alps, erected between us by nature. I am certain that for Rome, as well as for Germany, there will result a future that is glorious and prosperous. Duce. just as you and your people have remained true to your friendship in the decisive days, so I, too, and my people are ready to manifest the same friendship to Italy in difficult times. Duce. I raise my glass and drink to your health, to the happiness and greatness of the Italian people and to our immutable friendship!"

Last Day. Although Haile Selassie was girding in London to make his last stand at Geneva this week, his son-in-law Ras Gugsa traveled obediently in the entourage of Conquerors Vittorio Emanuele & Mussolini as they took Dictator Hitler out on the last day of his Rome visit for the big bombing & shelling.

Son Bruno Mussolini led a squadron of 28 gleaming Italian bombers, loosened destruction upon two 23,000-ton empty freighters in the Tyrrhenian Sea off La Furbara, sank them in a few minutes amid clouds of spray.

The bombing squadrons were then realistically attacked by pursuit ships. The heaviest type of bombs used by Italian craft today in Spain were not dropped for Adolf Hitler, since their radius of destruction is so tremendous as to be risky in war games, but in a land display the Fuehrer was treated to the dropping of a total of at least 100,000 pounds of "medium bombs," which made the earth tremble, blasted to smithereens large structures built to represent industrial plants and harbor works.

Over 400 planes joined in mass aerobatics, and next it was time for II Duce to set anti-tank guns popping with incendiary bullets which set fire to their targets. The latest Italian artillery then went into action, followed at Rome that evening by a gala Royal Opera performance of musical Adolf's favorite Lohengrin. Next morning Premier Mussolini drove unobtrusively to the railway station, popped in by a side door, while His Majesty the King-Emperor arrived in his victoria with departing Guest Hitler. Il Duce. after seeing the Fuehrer into his private train, dashed ahead in his own private train at a faster clip to Florence. There Art Lover Hitler browsed through the famed art museums and romantic palaces before boarding his train and chuffing off to Berlin.

Lollypop. In London and Paris, as well as in Berlin and Rome, statesmen expected bilateral pacts now to be swiftly made between France & Italy, Britain & Germany, after which they looked for the final effort to conclude a Four-Power Pact. II Duce was said to have got emotional Adolf Hitler all excited in Florence about a grandiose, perfectly vague project for "world Fascist-Nazi fraternization," this being Benito Mussolini's parting lollypop for the Fuehrer.

* His Majesty, who speaks perfect English, does not consider this his "home," reserves that intimate title for the Villa Savoia, standing amid spreading Roman gardens.

The King and his family "live" at their villa, and Vittorio Emanuele "works" at the Palazzo del Quirinale much as Benito Mussolini "works" at the Palazzo Venezia.

Hitler was not entertained last week in either the home of Il Re or the home of Il Duce.

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