ITALY: Bomb

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Wrathful Aftermath. Not until evening, when 100,000 Fascists thronged cheering into the great Piazza Colonna, did Signor Mussolini betray his feelings. Rising to address the crowd, jaw set, eyes luminous, he shouted: "This kind of thing must end! As I have abolished strikes, I intend absolutely to stop periodical attempts against my life."

Then, with a glowing menace which was taken by his hearers to refer to France, the safe meeting ground of Italian antiFascists, he cried: "Excessive and culpable tolerance of plotters beyond our frontiers cannot any longer be endured. . . . I say this not on account of myself, because I truly love to live in danger, but on account of the Italian people, who work and produce and have a right not to be disturbed by such recurrent happenings. You know that I do not utter words in vain. When I speak it is to announce my policies, which will be pushed through with characteristic Fascist determination and method. I shall make it increasingly difficult for a handful of madmen and criminals to disturb the life of the nation."

Though reports of attacks on Premier Mussolini have been numerous, only two besides that of last week are admitted officially: 1) the frustrated attempt of onetime Socialist Deputy Tito Zaniboni to aim at him with a rifle (TIME, Nov. 16, 1925); 2) the insane Miss Violet Gibson's attack upon him with a pistol (TIME, April 19), in which the bullet shot off the extreme tip of his nose.

At Rome a rumor has long circulated that, in April, 1923, when Signor Mussolini was driving his own car near Rome with his chauffeur by his side an assassin shot and killed the chauffeur, mistaking him for Premier Mussolini.