Home Again

Seven years ago 37-year-old Italian Foreign Minister Dino Grandi was the most dashing figure on the diplomatic stage and the fair-haired boy of Fascism as well. Then, in a surprise Cabinet shakeup, Dictator Benito Mussolini took away spade-bearded Dino Grandi's portfolio and made himself Foreign Minister. Some thought that Il Duce was miffed at the way Signer Grandi had conducted Italy's side of the negotiations at the Reparations Conference at Lausanne, but a more widely accepted theory was that he had violated Mussolini Commandment No. 1:

"I am the true and only Dictator and I shall brook no competition for popularity with my people."

There had been altogether too much discussion, it was said, about who should succeed Il Duce, Dino Grandi or his bearded "twin," Italo Balbo, leader of the famed mass flight to the Chicago Fair. Grandi was "exiled" as Ambassador to the Court of St. James's in 1933 and Hero Balbo was made Governor of Libya, in which hot and barren land he sits to this day. Last week Ambassador Count Grandi was recalled from London to become Minister of Justice, and observers wondered whether he had not again been kicked upstairs.

Like many another Italian War hero, young Dino Grandi had turned to the post-War Fascist movement to satisfy an acquired taste for action. He rose fast and, as Chief of Staff for the Quadrumvirs, stage-managed the March on Rome and Mussolini's meeting with King Vittorio Emmanuele III. In 1929, when he was 34, Dictator Mussolini promoted him from Undersecretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It was the age of international conferences, and at Geneva, London, Locarno and other diplomatic stamping grounds, everyone except the French described the young Italian as "dynamic," "charming," "electric," and "captivating." While Il Duce thundered about Mare Nostrum and armed Italy as fast as he could, Diplomat Grandi talked disarmament and assured the world of Italy's peaceful intentions. With the French, rulers of the Geneva roost, he engaged in a never-ending fight for prestige. At the height of his career as Foreign Minister he paid a goodwill visit to the U. S. and chatted amiably with President Hoover and Secretary of State Stimson. Next year he was demoted.

During the Italo-Ethiopian War and the crisis over sanctions, Ambassador Grandi nursed Anglo-Italian relations through their most difficult period by alternately pounding the table and making conciliatory gestures. For this accomplishment the King made him a Count in 1937. At the meetings of the Non-intervention Committee Britons particularly admired his successful duels with Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky. Although Dictator Mussolini consistently made a liar out of his Ambassador by violating pledges as fast as they were given, Count Grandi was able to persuade Prime Ministers Baldwin and Chamberlain to negotiate Mediterranean settlements guaranteeing the status quo. It was only when Italian Blackshirts invaded Albania that Britain reluctantly decided that Il Duce could not be trusted and turned to Russia.

Seven damp London winters have given Count Grandi rheumatism, and he has long wished to return to Italy. A recall so sudden that the British Government first learned of it from news dispatches came, however, as a surprise. Two months ago in a speech at the Embassy he violated diplomatic good manners by accusing Great Britain of a "foolish and criminal campaign of lies" against Germany and Italy and scoffing at the democracies' "furious impotence." But it was hinted that the Ambassador had spoken as a result of explicit orders from Rome and under protest, for he has been considered a moderate. Optimistic Britons hoped last week that his recall indicated that Dictator Mussolini wants him in Rome to put the brakes on Foreign Minister Count Ciano's hell-for-leather axial policy. Certainly the Ministry of Justice in Fascist Italy today is not an important post.

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