Journal de Genève
- General Averescu in Rome
- The Franco-Italian incidents
- Number 4, red
The paper credits earlier Romanian negotiations while admitting the new agreement’s clauses are unknown. It also discusses how Italian censorship affects French perceptions and attacks socialist international organisation.
Selected, image-checked first-page passages; partial reading, not complete articles or the whole page.
Translation
General Averescu in Rome
On leaving Geneva, the distinguished Romanian prime minister went to Rome, where on Thursday he signed an important political agreement between Italy and Romania.
Although General Averescu received his military education in Italy and has maintained extensive personal connections there, the initiative for this agreement was not his. When he came to power, he found negotiations with Italy already under way. Last year Mr Duca laid the first groundwork during the Assembly session. The talks continued throughout the winter. It was only this spring, however, after the present cabinet took office, that they took a decisive turn and the agreement now signed by General Averescu and Mr Mussolini could be drafted.
We do not know the provisions of this instrument. They are said to resemble those of the agreements linking Romania to France. But we need not await their publication to appreciate its importance.
The Franco-Italian incidents
It is hardly surprising that the campaign waged against France by Italian newspapers after the attempt in Rome has caused considerable astonishment here. Such occasions reveal the real advantages of a free press. If Italy had an independent press, little importance would have been attached to attacks explained by the emotion aroused by the attempted murder of the Duce. But in a country where all news and articles undergo strict censorship and generally express the views of those above, it was difficult not to take seriously such a concerted series of accusations. Repeated day after day, they have lost the character of a spontaneous, unthinking outburst.
Number 4, red
It is rather amusing to hear our socialists mock the League of Nations when one sees how much trouble they have creating an international organization with their comrades abroad. Yet it is a very long time since the prophet Marx urged workers to unite across national borders. So far, all their attempts have failed miserably, and those failures starkly expose the nebulous character of extremist theories.
Context
Romania’s search for several diplomatic partners
Romania sought agreements with multiple European powers to protect its postwar position. The Italian pact followed ties with Poland and France; Italy, in turn, had interests in the Balkans. That setting explains why the paper stresses negotiations extending across Romanian cabinets. The agreement was part of a continuing search for external support, rather than simply a product of Averescu’s personal Italian connections.
When press censorship becomes a diplomatic problem
The argument about Italy is not just a defence of journalistic freedom. It concerns how another country reads hostile coverage. Independent papers can disagree with their government, whereas a tightly controlled press makes coordinated attacks look officially approved. The writer therefore treats repeated accusations against France as a signal about relations between governments. Censorship narrows the distance that diplomacy can otherwise place between a newspaper’s anger and state policy.
Two rival ways to organize international cooperation
The polemic compares the League’s cooperation among states with socialist efforts to unite workers across borders. It turns the socialists’ own international ideal against their criticism of Geneva. This is a defence of gradual, institutional cooperation through an attack on the credibility of a rival project. The comparison helps explain why a dispute about domestic political opponents appears beside reports of European diplomacy.
Original
Le général Averesco à Rome
En quittant Genève, l’éminent président du conseil roumain s’est rendu à Rome, où il a signé jeudi un important accord politique entre l’Italie et la Roumanie.
Bien que le général Averesco ait fait en Italie ses études militaires et qu’il ait conservé dans ce pays de grandes relations personnelles, ce n’est pas à lui que revient l’initiative de cet accord. En arrivant au pouvoir, il a trouvé les négociations avec l’Italie déjà engagées. M. Duca, l’an dernier, en avait posé les premiers jalons au cours de la session de l’Assemblée. Les conversations se poursuivirent pendant tout l’hiver. Toutefois, c’est seulement ce printemps, après l’arrivée au pouvoir du cabinet actuel, qu’elles prirent un tour décisif et que put être rédigé l’accord sous lequel le général Averesco et M. Mussolini viennent maintenant de mettre leurs signatures.
Les dispositions de cet acte ne nous sont pas connues. On dit qu'elles sont analogues à celles des accords qui lient la Roumanie à la France. Mais il n'est pas nécessaire d'en attendre la publication pour être en mesure d'en souligner l'importance.
Les incidents franco-italiens
On ne saurait s'étonner que la campagne que les journaux italiens ont menée contre la France à l'occasion de l'attentat de Rome ait causé ici une vive surprise. C'est dans ces cas-là qu'on s'aperçoit que la liberté de la presse a de réels avantages. S'il existait en Italie une presse indépendante, on n'aurait pas attaché une grande importance à des attaques qu'on se serait expliquées par l'émotion due à la tentative de meurtre commise contre le « Duce ». Mais, s'agissant d'un pays où toutes les informations et tous les articles sont soumis à une censure sévère et expriment en général la pensée d'en haut, il était difficile de ne pas prendre au sérieux un ensemble aussi concerté de récriminations qui, s'étant répétées pendant des jours et des jours, ont perdu le caractère d'un mouvement spontané et irraisonné.
Numéro 4, rouge
Il est assez plaisant d'entendre nos socialistes se moquer de la S. d. N. lorsque on constate la peine qu'ils éprouvent à créer une organisation internationale avec leurs camarades étrangers; il y a cependant fort longtemps que le prophète Marx adjurait les travailleurs de s'unir par dessus les frontières nationales. Jusqu'à présent toutes leurs tentatives ont pitoyablement échoué et ces échecs soulignent crûment le caractère nuageux des thèses extrémistes.