Hitler's Table Talk

CAPITALISTS IN STRUGGLE AGAINST BOLSHEVISM 593
cause he had guarded against the danger of a few Prefects intriguing
against him by seeing to it that some of his most stalwart
and trustworthy Fascists are always put on the Prefectorial
nomination list. But he has to act as swift as lightning and be
ready with his recommendation the very second a Prefecture
falls vacant; if he is in the least tardy, the post is immediately
filled by some Court sycophant, and what that means I have
myself seen in Rome.
I could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw how shamelessly
the Queen behaved towards the Duce, and how the Court
clique was always pressed to the fore. Never have I seen the
necessity for a militia better demonstrated. When I said this to
the Duce, he laughed and said that under present circumstances
even he could not carry on with only the executive power of the
police behind him.
The upper ten thousand of Italy, instead of realising that a
victory for Communism would mean their own immediate
annihilation, and instead therefore of giving him all the support
they could, placed difficulty after difficulty in his way in the
struggle against the Bolsheviks. They were as little conscious of
the tremendous assistance they were giving the Bolsheviks as
the stupid calf, of which it is said: "The stupid calf choses its
own butcher."
269 26th July 1942, midday
Oilfields in the Caucasus and elsewhere—Russian methods
—The value of gas propellants.
The presence of oil in the Caucasus, in the vicinity of Vienna
and in the Harz leads one to suspect the existence of an oilfield
of whose magnitude and importance one had not the least idea.
This is not in the least surprising. As in the case of mineral
wealth, the trusts would immediately buy up any newly discovered
oil-bearing territories, with the intention of restricting
their development to a degree compatible with their other
interests; in this, their primary object would be to prevent exploitation
by others. One must give the Russians their due and
.admit that, in this respect, they have succeeded in limiting the
power of monopolies and eliminating private interests. As a
result, they are now in a position to prospect throughout their