Mussolini was British secret agent: Report

LONDON — Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had a brief career as a British secret agent, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday, quoting research by a Cambridge University historian.

In 1917, Mussolini, then working as a journalist, was paid 100 pounds a week by security service MI5 to campaign for Italy to continue to fight alongside the allies in World War One.

“Britain’s least reliable ally in the war at the time was Italy after the revolutionary Russia’s pullout from the conflict,” Cambridge historian Peter Martland told the Guardian.

Source: timescolonist.com