London: Italy`s wartime dictator Benito
Mussolini, credited with being one of the key figures in the
creation of Fascism, was actually British spy agency MI5`s
"secret agent", de-classified documents have revealed.
According to the documents, Mussolini got his start
in politics in 1917 with the help of a 100 pounds weekly wage
from MI5 -- 6,000 pounds today -- to write pro-war propaganda
for his newspaper `Il Popolo d`Italia` and keep Italian troops
fighting at the front.
Historians in Cambridge, led by Peter Martland, have
uncovered the details of the lucrative deal struck between a
young Benito Mussolini and MI5, more than 64 years after his
death, `The Times` reported.
"Mussolini wasn`t exactly house-trained. We know he
was a womaniser par excellence. There`s the potential that a
lot of money was spent on that," Martland was quoted by the
British newspaper as saying.
In fact, the deal was brokered by British Member
of Parliament, Sir Samuel Hoare, who would almost two decades
later become Foreign Secretary, but in the autumn of 1917 was
acting as MI5`s man in Italy, according to the documents.
The hope was that Mussolini`s newsprint would reach
the disgruntled masses of industrialised workers, halt the
strikes and overturn pacifism -- propaganda might stiffen
Italy`s resolve and banish the Bolsheviks.
Bureau Report
It is unlikely that the man and Il Duce ever met,
but the historians have estimated that the overinflated wage
was small beer for British budgets, from which the war was
leeching 4 million pounds every day.
"This is not some Mickey Mouse back-of-an-envelope
job. But what the hell do you do if you`re losing a war? You
keep your enemies going and 100 pounds is nothing," Martland
was quoted as saying.
However, the two men went their separate ways
after the armistice -- Mussolini to establish a bloody fascist
dictatorship, and Hoare to work his way through the ranks of
government. The two came together again in 1935 when the
British foreign secretary signed the Hoare-Laval Pact, and
gave his old payee control of Abyssinia.
Buerau Report
