Mussolini Paid by British Spies?

Benito Mussolini is best known for being a fascist Italian dictator who people think made the trains run on time (he didn't, but that's a great idea for a future Historical Myths piece...) Before that he was a socialist, and between those two, during the later years of the First World War, he was a pro-war journalist. New research published in a history of British spying, as reported in this Guardian piece, has revealed that Mussolini was paid a £100 a week by British spies to write pro-war articles to persuade the nation to remain in the war, equivalent to about £6000 today. He also used local thugs to rough up opposition and stop strikes. So, on the one hand, Mussolini was a British agent, on the other hand Britain was paying Mussolini to use propaganda and violence for political ends, practicing techniques he'd later use to gain power and which would influence Hitler.