LONDON— A historian says Benito Mussolini, who declared war on Britain at the start of World War II, was well paid as a British agent during World War I.
The Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday that Peter Martland of Cambridge University discovered that Mussolini was paid 100 pounds a week by Britain in 1917 — equal to about $9,600 today.
The late Samuel Hoare, in charge of British agents in Rome at that time, revealed in his memoirs 55 years go that Mussolini was a paid agent. Martland found more details in Hoare’s papers, including that Mussolini also sent Italian army veterans to beat up peace protesters in Milan, a dry run for his fascist blackshirt units.
“The last thing Britain wanted were pro-peace strikes bringing the factories in Milan to a halt. It was a lot of money to pay a man who was a journalist at the time, but compared to the 4 million pounds Britain was spending on the war every day, it was petty cash,” The Guardian quoted Martland as saying.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33312493/ns/world_news-europe/
See also Was Hitler a “British” Agent? (well it would explain Dunkirk among other things)
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