I, Mussolini

Benito Mussolini last week fired his son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, the galloping gallant of Fascism, and took to himself the cabinet portfolios of War, Navy, Air, Interior, Foreign Affairs. Said Il Duce, explaining the dismissal of Foreign Minister Ciano and eleven other leading members of the Government:

"In this delicate phase of the conflict," said Il Duce, "I, Mussolini, am assuming the entire burden of the conduct of political and military operations."

Edda's Boy. Ciano, who has one of the largest vanities in Europe, was eased into a seat on the Fascist Grand Council and then appointed Ambassador to the Vatican. As a Council member he saved face in the Party. As Vatican envoy he kept some of his social prestige (and was in a position to meet diplomatic representatives of enemy countries). He needed these cushions for his ego because the "change of guard" removed him from his position as heir apparent to the Italian dictatorship, and from his easy access to the public trough. Both the Italian people and their German overlords had reason to be pleased.

Still a playboy at 40, Ciano loves to show off his figure. He built a huge fortune out of Albanian land grabs, corporation shares and the earnings of the Ciano family newspaper, Il Telegrafo. He got his job by marrying Mussolini's viper-lean, predatory daughter, Edda. He was one of the original promoters of the Berlin-Rome Pact. He also strongly urged the Italian attack on Greece in 1940.

Stooges and Rumors. The other changes put Party nonentities in the places of such men as Count Dino Grandi di Mordano, a moderate who was once Ambassador to the Court of St. James's and Alessandro Pavolini, one of the few Fascist bigwigs with administrative ability.

Rome rumored that Mussolini had nipped a plot to make Ciano a Darlan. Another reported that Mussolini had dispatched elegant Crown Prince Umberto to command Italian divisions on the Russian front in order to thwart a clerical fascist peace move centering around the haggard House of Savoy.

A more likely explanation was that the Germans had ordered the shakeup. Mussolini obviously followed Germany's example last week when he ordered the conscription of all men between the ages of 14 and 70, and women between 14 and 60, to work in war industries.

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