Il Piccolo
- The government’s firm policy of deflation
- Towards Franco-German cooperation
- The sixth session of the Geneva League
A Fascist Party declaration insists that deflation and the lira’s revaluation will continue. Reports from Berlin and Geneva discuss industrial agreements as a route to Franco-German cooperation and the League’s next tasks after Germany’s admission.
Partial reading of three passages: the opening deflation declaration; the first and third paragraphs on Franco-German cooperation, with the intervening paragraph marked […]; and the opening paragraph on the League’s closing session. Subsequent paragraphs and other articles are outside this reading. The League headline prints VI (6th), while its body says seventh; both are retained.
Translation
The government’s firm policy of deflation
ROME, 25
The National Fascist Party’s Orders Bulletin states:
“If the agitation among stock-exchange traders, which reached its peak this week, was intended to put pressure on the government, it was entirely misguided. Let everyone, on the exchange and outside it, understand that the path of deflation on which the Fascist government has embarked will be followed methodically and unyieldingly to its goal: the progressive revaluation of the lira. Let everyone adjust their conduct accordingly, once and for all.”
Towards Franco-German cooperation
The prospects of a military alliance
BERLIN, 25
The commission charged with studying the questions arising from the plan for Franco-German rapprochement, which reports to the ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Economy and Finance, has already begun work. The first comments in the Paris press on yesterday’s cabinet meeting do not seem very favourable. So far, however, they are so few and come from newspapers so far to the right or left that it is not yet possible here to form an accurate picture of the Paris press’s position.
[…]
In Amsterdam’s Telegraph, the well-known journalist publishes new details of the grand plan whose foundations have just been laid. Its political substance would rest on a solid network of economic interests linking France and Germany. Sauerwein announces not only the formation of an iron and steel cartel, but also one for coal and other minerals, as well as an agreement between the French and German chemical industries, which has in fact been discussed for some time. Such economic agreements are, in Sauerwein’s view, the best way to open the road to political understandings. Sauerwein even speaks of the possibility of understandings on a grand scale, which would lead to the formation of a formidable continental bloc.
The sixth session of the Geneva League
Closed with a speech by Nincic
GENEVA, 25
At the afternoon sitting, the President of the Assembly, Nincic, delivered the closing speech of this 7th session. Departing from custom, he refrained from summarising the work of the League of Nations. After recalling the session’s two great achievements, Germany’s admission and the reform of the Council, he referred to the most serious tasks facing the League’s organs in the near future: preparing the World Economic Conference and the Disarmament Conference. He expressed the hope that both could be convened before the next Assembly. Nincic concluded by affirming that the League of Nations had already shown that it was moving inexorably towards the universal character it did not yet possess.
Context
Why the government insisted on a stronger lira
The declaration turns an exchange-rate policy into a test of obedience: traders are told to adapt to the government’s chosen course. In 1926 the Fascist government decided to raise the lira’s value by deflating the economy. The Bank of Italy’s historical account records that its director, Bonaldo Stringher, feared the deflationary risks even as the bank carried out the programme. Monetary stabilisation also brought institutional changes: the bank gained a monopoly of note issuance and new powers over commercial banks. A new gold parity and renewed convertibility followed in 1927–28. The passage therefore belongs to an unfinished reorganisation of money and credit, whose costs were a concern even within the institution charged with implementing it.
Why economic agreements mattered to Franco-German diplomacy
The rapprochement discussed here followed the meeting of French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand and his German counterpart Gustav Stresemann at Thoiry on 17 September 1926. Their agenda connected security questions with money: evacuation of the Rhineland, release of Saar coal mines and the possible use of German railway bonds to relieve France’s financial crisis. That connection helps explain Sauerwein’s argument that industrial agreements could prepare political agreements. His forecast of a continental bloc goes further than the fact of the meeting itself. In the selected passage, the proposed cartels and wider political understandings remain expectations, while the opening paragraph acknowledges that the reaction in Paris is still difficult to judge.
What changed in the League’s Council
Nincic’s two achievements were closely related. On 8 September 1926 Germany entered the League and received a permanent Council seat; the number of non-permanent seats rose from six to nine. The Assembly represented all member states, whereas the smaller Council combined permanent powers with elected members and had responsibilities including plans for reducing armaments. Germany’s arrival thus changed both the League’s reach and its decision-making body. The closing speech also looked beyond membership towards economic cooperation and disarmament. The economic conference was subsequently held in Geneva in May 1927. Its preparation gave practical content to the hope for a more broadly representative international organisation.
Original
La decisa politica deflazionista del Governo
La decisa politica deflazionista del Governo
ROMA, 25
Il Foglio d'Ordini del Partito Nazionale Fascista, reca:
«Se l'agitazione dei borsisti, che ha toccato il suo culmine in questa settimana, aveva per iscopo di premere sul Governo, essa era completamente sbagliata. Si sappia da tutti, in borsa e fuori, che la strada della deflazione, sulla quale si è posto il Governo fascista, sarà metodicamente, inflessibilmente percorsa fino alla meta: la progressiva rivalutazione della lira. E ognuno si regoli una buona volta in conseguenza».
Verso la collaborazione franco-tedesca
Verso la collaborazione franco-tedesca
Le probabilità d'una alleanza militare
BERLINO, 25
La Commissione incaricata di studiare le questioni connesse al piano di riavvicinamento franco-tedesco, e che fa capo ai ministri degli Esteri, dell'Economia e delle Finanze, si è già messa al lavoro. I primi commenti della stampa parigina al Consiglio dei ministri di ieri, non sembrano troppo favorevoli, ma essi sono finora talmente scarsi e provenienti da giornali così estremisti o a destra o a sinistra, che dell'orientamento della stampa parigina non è ancora possibile farsi qui un'idea esatta.
[…]
Sul Telegraph di Amsterdam, il noto giornalista pubblica nuovi ragguagli sul grandioso piano di cui sono state ora gettate le basi. Tale piano dovrebbe poggiare, per quanto riguarda il suo contenuto politico, su una salda rete di interessi economici fra la Francia e la Germania. Sauerwein preannunzia infatti oltre che la costituzione del Cartello del ferro e dell'acciaio, anche quello del carbone e di altri minerali, nonchè un accordo fra le industrie chimiche francesi e tedesche, del quale, peraltro, si parla da tempo. Tali accordi economici son il miglior mezzo, secondo il Sauerwein, per aprire la via a intese politiche. Il Sauerwein parla persino della possibilità in grande stile di tali intese, che dovrebbero sboccare nella costituzione di un formidabile blocco continentale.
La VI Sessione della Lega ginevrina
La VI Sessione della Lega ginevrina
chiusa con un discorso di Nincic
GINEVRA, 25
Nella seduta pomeridiana il Presidente dell'Assemblea, Nincic, ha pronunciato il discorso di chiusura di questa settima Sessione. Rinunciando a quanto la consuetudine detta, egli ha tralasciato di fare un riassunto dell'opera svolta dalla Società delle Nazioni. Dopo aver rammentati i due grandi risultati di questa Sessione, l'ammissione della Germania e la riforma del Consiglio, ha accennato ai più gravi compiti che incombono nel prossimo avvenire agli organi della Lega, e cioè la preparazione della Conferenza economica mondiale e di quella del disarmo, augurandosi che entrambe possano essere convocate prima della prossima Assemblea. Nincic ha concluso affermando che la Società delle Nazioni ha già dato prove di andare ineluttabilmente verso quel carattere di universalità che ancora non possiede.
Source: Source: Internet Archive