Transcribed by Susan Bergeron. Geo. News Chronicle Saturday, February 8th, 1941 Cuckoo Clock that Struck Back For five years MUSSOLINI and his Fascist rhetoricians have spilled gallons of ink and jammed the ether with utterances of what they would do to Britain. Last July Rome Radio said: "We will tear the British Empire apart like a cuckoo clock." A month before Signor ANSALDO the Italian Press chief, said: "Then (after France was defeated) will come the attack on England, the enemy No. 1. Germany and Italy together will free the world from the tyranny of the British." In September, when the R.A.F. was shooting the Luftwaffe out of the British skies, Signor GAYDA wrote that: "Germany and Italy intend not only to isolate, but completely to annihilate, Great Britain." In October the newspapers in Rome stated that, by the middle of December, the Axis would be victorious. "The capitulation of England will come about in the very near future." "Britain was given a last chance to make peace before being crushed!: screamed the "Popolo d'Italia." "By holding the enemy immobilised for 20 days, BERGANZOLI and his men have interrupted the forward surge of the British .. and they have proved that the surprise of Sidi BARRANI was not a precedent and will not be repeated," said Signor ANSALDO on January 5. The next day Rome Radio declared: "Whatever happens, the fate of the British forces in the East is sealed." "Britain will have to settle her last account not by years or weeks, of which CHURCHILL spoke, but by days and hours," said Signor GAYDA after Italy had been in the war for a month. "Italy is unshakably at its fighting post and will not withdraw" GAYDA in the "Giornale d'Italia." "The Italian armed forces will certainly do the part assigned to them," said Rome Radio a fortnight ago. "We will make England look like zero - a figure never understood by that proud nation: Il DUCE himself in "Popolo d'Italia." .....