“To the pacifist conscientious objector, the criterion being “violence” and not freedom the men who tried to shoot Mussolini were “on a par” with the fascists-“They were using the same methods.” Yet common sense showed that those who were nearer to Mussolini were not those who were trying to shoot him, but those who, because they deplored violence, sought to make the population tranquil, and would sooner co-operate than resist; who, although they were not fascists, felt that anything was better than revolutionary “violence”.”
