Italy in Confusion
The resignation of Signor Parri's Government is a misfortune for Italy. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to find anyone else who commands such widespread popular support or who can recon- cile the conflicting aims of the parties forming the National Com- mittee of Liberation. The alternative, as Signor Parri has empha- sised, is a Government of the Right or the Left, either of which might cause civil war. The main responsiblity for the crisis must fall upon the Liberals, who, despite their name, now predominantly reflect the interests of the large property owners ; they were joined by the Christian Democrats in withdrawing their support from Signor Parri and in claiming that their withdrawal cancelled his mandate from the Committee of National Liberation. It is difficult to know what the two parties hope to gain by provoking this cr:sis. They may hope to protect, against the purge demanded by the Left, the privileged position which the large property owners were able to maintain under Fascism ; on the worst interpretation, they may hope to throw Italy into a state of confusion and disorder for which forcible remedies would be required. It is difficult not to relate the fall of the Parri Government to the recrudescence of near-Fascist movements. In some respects the situation begins to resemble that which preceded the March on Rome, with the important difference that Italy is now a defeated nation ; and history seems to be playing strange tricks when the Lieutenant of the Realm is forced to call on Signor Orlando to solve the crisis.
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