Journal de Genève
- Against the wheat monopoly
- The new Council
- Letter from Rome: political exiles and the Italian position
The paper openly campaigns against a grain monopoly, questions the continuity of the enlarged League Council, and explores how Italy’s treatment of political emigrants affects countries receiving them.
Selected grain editorial paragraphs, Council conclusion and expatriation discussion; intervening passages marked as omitted.
Translation
Against the wheat monopoly
Like it or not, Swiss citizens will hear a great deal about wheat in the coming months, for early in December they must vote on the principle of a monopoly. Moreover, with no important election scheduled for this autumn, wheat will occupy all the more space in newspaper columns and on billboards. A great campaign is coming. Contrary to what some would have us believe, it will pit supporters and opponents not of encouraging cereal cultivation, but of the state-monopoly solution. Many who want nothing to do with a monopoly are convinced that other means must be found to ease the heavy burden on our farmers.
[...]
It is now certain that only the monopoly will go before voters on 5 December. The Federal Council has refused to add, as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung proposed, a vote on the popular initiative that revives the earlier Schulthess–Laur plan for encouraging wheat cultivation without a monopoly.
[...]
In these circumstances, we must take a clear position on the only question to be put to the people this year: the wheat monopoly. Faithful to the economic and political principles it has always defended, the Journal de Genève will campaign against it.
The new Council
The newly elected members are Poland, reaping the deserved reward of moderation, Romania, the Netherlands, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador and China. As can be seen, the vote has profoundly changed the Council. Eight of its 14 members, including Germany, will be new. Until now, the League of Nations’ policy has enjoyed considerable continuity. For the first time that stability has been broken. The outlook and actions of a Council transformed to its very foundations—and perhaps less strengthened than the numbers suggest—will be watched with great curiosity and some concern.
Letter from Rome: political exiles and the Italian position
Some time ago, the Italian government secured approval for a law depriving Italian nationals of their citizenship if they engage in anti-national activity abroad by seeking to sabotage the regime. Applying this law is not without difficulties. Many anti-Fascists travel abroad with all the necessary identity papers and are received as Italian citizens. Once they lose their nationality, how should the governments of the countries sheltering them regard them? Here is an interesting case to resolve.
[...]
But how does this problem directly engage those governments’ responsibility?
Context
Supporting farmers without a state monopoly
The wheat campaign was about the instrument of agricultural support as well as its goal. A voter might want stronger domestic cultivation yet oppose placing trade under a state monopoly. The editorial insists on that distinction because the alternative initiative would not appear on the same ballot. It seeks to make a vote against monopoly compatible with continued support for farmers, rather than letting the government’s proposal define the whole choice.
More members, less continuity?
The League Council was a smaller working body alongside the Assembly of all member states. Enlargement and elections could broaden representation, but they also changed the group through which disputes were handled. The Geneva paper’s concern is institutional memory: eight newcomers among fourteen members could change working relationships and policy. Its cautious response contrasts with accounts celebrating broader participation, showing that representation and continuity were separate measures of the reform’s success.
Nationality as pressure on political exiles
A person could enter a country with valid Italian papers and later be deprived of citizenship by Italy. The host government then faced a change it had not itself ordered: the resident’s original legal identity no longer matched Rome’s position. The Rome letter uses that difficulty to question Italy’s attempt to make other governments responsible for its opponents abroad. The underlying dispute is about whose political decisions should determine an exile’s treatment.
Original
Contre le monopole du blé
Contre le monopole du blé
Bon gré, mal gré, les citoyens suisses entendront abondamment parler du blé au cours des prochains mois, car ils auront à se prononcer, au début de décembre, sur le principe du monopole. Comme, d’autre part, aucune élection importante n’est prévue pour cet automne, la question du blé accaparera d’autant plus les colonnes des journaux et celles des tableaux d’affichage. Ce sera une grande campagne qui mettra aux prises non pas, comme d’aucuns cherchent à le faire croire, les partisans et les détracteurs de l’encouragement à la culture des céréales, mais les protagonistes et les adversaires de la solution étatiste du monopole. Car beaucoup de ceux qui ne veulent pas entendre parler du monopole sont convaincus de la nécessité de faciliter, par d’autres moyens, la tâche très lourde de nos agriculteurs.
[...]
Il est maintenant certain que seul le monopole sera soumis aux électeurs le 5 décembre : le Conseil fédéral a refusé d’y joindre, comme l’avait proposé la Nouvelle Gazette de Zurich, le vote sur l’initiative populaire qui, reprenant l’ancien projet de MM. Schulthess et Laur, préconise l’encouragement à la culture du blé sans monopole.
[...]
Dans ces conditions, il faut prendre nettement position sur la seule question qui sera posée cette année au peuple : celle du monopole du blé. Le Journal de Genève, fidèle aux principes économiques et politiques qu’il ne cesse de défendre, fera campagne contre le monopole.
Le nouveau Conseil
Les nouveaux membres élus sont la Pologne, qui recueille le fruit mérité de la modération, la Roumanie, la Hollande, le Chili, la Colombie, le Salvador et la Chine. Le Conseil, on le voit, sort de ce scrutin profondément modifié. Sur 14 membres, huit, en y comprenant l’Allemagne, seront nouveaux. Jusqu’ici, la politique de la Société des nations avait joui d’une grande continuité. Pour la première fois, cette stabilité se trouve rompue — et l’on observera avec une grande curiosité et quelque préoccupation l’esprit et l’action d’un Conseil transformé jusque dans ses fondements et peut-être moins fortifié que ne l’indiquent les chiffres.
Lettre de Rome — Autour des émigrés politiques : La thèse italienne
Le gouvernement italien a fait approuver, il y a quelque temps, une loi qui prive de la nationalité ceux des ressortissants italiens qui font, à l’étranger, œuvre antinationale en essayant de saboter le régime. L’application de cette loi ne va pas sans comporter des difficultés. Car il arrive que de nombreux antifascistes se rendent à l’étranger munis de toutes les pièces d’identité indispensables et sont reçus comme citoyens italiens ; du jour où ils perdent leur nationalité, comment doivent-ils être considérés par les gouvernements des pays qui les hospitalisent ? Voilà un cas intéressant à résoudre.
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Mais en quoi ce problème engage-t-il la responsabilité directe de ces gouvernements ?