At the moment when Mussolini, the leader of the Italian Fascisti, was seizing control of the country by force, the governing authority has been placed in his hands by the King, who yesterday asked him to form a Cabinet.
On Saturday, while Mussolini ordered a general mobilisation of his more or less armed force of nearly half a million, the Cabinet decided upon measures of resistance ╤ with certain reservations. The military were ordered to hold Rome against attack, but to give some latitude to the revolutionaries in the provinces.
Martial law was ordered to be proclaimed throughout the country from midday on Saturday, but before the day was out the order was rescinded. The official explanation was that the situation has become easier; in fact, as our correspondent shows, it has become too bad for remedy, and the King, recognising this, refused to sign the decree.
(From our Correspondent.)
ROME, SATURDAY, 6.40P.M.
The Fascist party last night ordered a general mobilisation. The Fascist leaders insist upon the peaceful character of their movement, which they declare is only in tended to enforce a swift solution of the crisis in harmony with Fascist aims.
Power has passed to the military authority, and the Cabinet has issued an appeal to the country urging the people to remain calm.
Orders to the military are not to forbid Fascist forces from leaving the provinces, only to forbid their entrance to Rome. The entrances to the capital are occupied by troops who have put up barriers of barbed wire as a measure of caution.
Bloodshed has occurred in Cremona, where some Fascists have been killed, but generally the situation is regarded without great anxiety, some confidence being placed in the political sense and patriotism of the Fascists.
The Cabinet had asked for more drastic military measures, and had even sent orders in that sense, but the King to-day refused to sign a decree of martial law in order to avoid conflict. Theatres are shut, and newspapers suspended, but the Rome population is quiet.
The King has begun consultations with the Speaker of the Lower House, Signor Denicola, and with the President of the Senate, as well as with Mussolini and the Right wing leader, Signor Salandra.
The constitutional solution would be a coalition Cabinet of public safety under Signor Giolitti, but at the moment a Salandra-Mussolini combination seems possible.
