Word: duce
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Whether Mussolini's Italy could be induced to stay out of the war was no longer the question. Flushed with somebody else's success, Il Duce had upped his demands to include not only Tunisia, Djibouti, French and British Somaliland. Corsica. Malta. Gibraltar and Suez, but also the two French departments of the Maritime Alps (including the Riviera) and the Haute-Savoie. On hearing this news. France called off a trade pact awaiting signature, got ready for war with Italy...
...blitzkrieged Britain, and even part of Yugoslavia and Greece, Adolf Hitler would never let Mussolini play first fiddle in Europe above the shores of the Mediterranean. One day Italy will have to settle with Germany for a port on the Adriatic. Little but fear of Germany has kept Il Duce from grabbing Dalmatia already...
Frantic Allies. Desperately France and Britain worked to remedy their mistakes. To a reported offer by France of a free port at Djibouti, minority rights in Tunisia and a seat on the Suez Canal board. Il Duce replied coldly that the offer was "too late and too little." The British Government, angling for eventual help from Russia, rushed Socialist Sir Stafford Cripps to the Kremlin, where he is well liked. But was there time to get help from Russia? To smooth relations with Spain, His Majesty's Government sent Sir Samuel Hoare as Ambassador to Madrid...
...Strove once more, in a secret message, to hold Italy at peace. Constantly the President, now working far into every night, counseled with elegant William Phillips, U. S. Ambassador in Rome, urging on II Duce the benefits of keeping U. S. good will. There was no sign that his efforts were having any real effect: foreign experts believed Premier Mussolini only awaited the perfect moment to strike. And up & down the Capitol II Duce was referred to as "The Jackal...
...years later II Duce was to put an arm around Miller's shoulder, tell him "Maybe I shall be a reporter again, too." Webb Miller made a warm friend of Spain's Primo de Rivera during the Riff campaign, later wangled direct news items from him, toll prepaid. Astride a sandbagged parapet, he flashed the first news of Italy's advance on Ethiopia, got the word to Rome ahead of the official Italian story...