Turncoats

ROAD TO EXILE--Emilio Lussu--Covici, Friede ($2.50).

The accounts of political exiles from Italy and Germany range from atrocity stories to philosophical discussions of dictatorship, seldom give concrete evidence of how Fascism makes its appearance on the plain streets of some familiar environment. Last week an ironic little volume by a onetime member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies gave U. S. readers a vivid, thought-provoking picture of the various ways native Sardinians--radicals, innocent bystanders, Fascists--reacted to the bewildering news of Mussolini's march on Rome on Oct. 30, 1922, changing sides at the last moment, heroically jumping before the steam roller as it got under way, or simply waiting to see what was going to happen before they declared their allegiance. A strong liberal, Emilio Lussu had been an officer in the Italian Army during the War, was elected a Deputy from the province of Cagliari in Sardinia, soon found himself, apparently to his own surprise, a leader of the antiFascists in his own region.

Road to Exile is a modest book. Touching briefly but dramatically on his own exploits, Lussu skims over the facts that he dodged his enemies successfully until 1927, evaded a dozen traps set for him, killed one of the men who tried to seize him and was freed despite pressure from the Fascists. When he was wounded while in the hands of the police, the demonstrations of his supporters almost caused a rebellion in Sardinia. Deported to the island of Lipari in 1927, he escaped two years later.

Chief distinction of Road to Exile, however, is Lussu's malicious portraits of his colleagues who first pledged undying enmity to Fascism, then became prudently neutral, eventually turned Fascist. At one meeting Signer Pietro Lissia told Lussu that unless the cause of liberty was defended to the last drop of blood, it would be a lasting disgrace ''for us and for our sons." Then he added: ''Not that I have any sons myself." He next appeared as the representative in Sardinia of Mussolini's Government.

A general Lussu had known during the War declared his readiness to die for Mussolini immediately after Mussolini became Premier. "Remembering how little desire he had shown to lose his life during the War I was amazed," Lussu reflected, "that he should be so anxious to die in time of peace." Another democratic Deputy told Lussu that opposition was useless, since tyranny could never triumph over faith. Then when a group of Fascists passed he replied to the Fascist salute, complained bitterly that Italians were developing a slave psychology.

A lawyer who had surrounded his house with barbed wire and sworn to die fighting any invasion of his liberty, became a prominent Fascist, visited Lussu before his arrest. The Deputy asked him glumly, "What have you done with the barbed wire?" In reply the lawyer handed Lussu an old edition of a 16th-Century book, made him read the title. It was: The Ultimate Profession of Faith of Simon Sinai, of Lucca, first Roman Catholic, then Calvinist, then Lutheran, then again Catholic, but always an Atheist.

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