Militarism for Children The decree issued by the Italian Cabinet
on Tuesday, entailing, in effect, the militarization of the whole male population, gives the impression of a nation suffering from monomania. If Italy were immediately threatened with external danger, and the defence of her frontiers called for, the intensive military training of the adult population would be intelligible. But in this case the process is to begin with children of eight, and the aim is avowedly to promote among these children a love of the military life and imbue them with the military spirit. If the sense of values and objectives which Signor Mussolini hopes to inculcate became general in Europe the world would not be a fit place to live in. Italy's decisions about Italians, it may be argued, are no concern of ours. Directly they are not. Indirectly they stimulate inevitably the tendency towards isolationism, for with a reign of force in Germany, and a reign of militarism in Italy, and a repudiation of pledges by Poland and Japan, we see everywhere tenden- des in progress from which we inevitably desire to disso- ciate ourselves as completely as possible. The world can only be saved by co-operation, but there is a point at which co-operation becomes impossible. * * * *
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