Il Piccolo
- Neither Without Nor Against Italy
- The French Government Stands Firm
- The End-of-Month Settlement
Il Piccolo's page of 1 October 1926 carried three quite different items. The first was a long quotation from the Rome daily La Tribuna, which treated Mussolini's meeting with Austen Chamberlain as proof that Europe could no longer be run without Italy. It sneered at Italian social-democratic papers for fawning over the Briand–Stresemann talks, and said questions such as Tangier and Abyssinia were already clear from recently reached terms. From Paris, the paper reported that Poincaré told a protesting parliamentary delegation that his government would put a confidence vote on each administrative-reform decree and accept no amendments. From Genoa and Turin came news that the end-of-month stock-exchange settlement had been suspended: brokers had gone insolvent, and the failure of a Genoa broker had held up deliveries of securities to the Bank of Italy. This reading is limited to the three selected excerpts and does not include the page's other articles.
Translation
Neither Without Nor Against Italy
[?] Naturally, since there is everywhere a great deal of European press, and also not a few politicians, who continue to believe that there can be a European policy without Italy (which means against Italy), the recognition of an Italian action, of an Italian position, of an Italian authority comes as an irritating surprise, a tormenting realization. Above all when this recognition must be addressed to the man who interests the world and whom the Italian victory brought forth as its vindicator: to Mussolini. Naturally there is still a home-grown social-democratic press — the newspaper continues — which, wagging its tail with joy outside the door of the Briand–Stresemann talk and waving its arms about to play peacemaker between Poincaré and Germany's categorical demands, shows how the old Italy let itself be left on the margins of European politics, in a grotesque and apologetic role toward all other people's reconciliations, even those that ended up offending Italy. But this noted, things do not change, and the reality is the one that Mussolini's meeting with Chamberlain calmly indicates, without journalistic staging. As for other problems that may be the subject of the talk, they are, like those of Tangier and Abyssinia, already clear in the terms recently reached, and the understandings of the two ministers can only reconfirm the already evident points of agreement between the two Governments. There is then the possible examination of the great guiding lines in so vast and complex a crisis as the one affecting the whole Continent. And certainly, on these lines, Mussolini, who does not care for the day-to-day contingencies of diplomacy, has things to see and to say. But this examination is more particularly connected to the sympathy that binds the Italian Prime Minister to the British Foreign Secretary, and it cannot be the matter of concrete definitions and journalistic lists. Certainly one can imagine — concludes the Tribuna — that in a conversation of this kind the truths are touched to the quick and at close range far more than in the many international orators and assemblies with which we have been, and still are, gratified for some years." [?]
The French Government Stands Firm
[?] Mr. Poincaré, receiving the parliamentary delegation opposed to certain features of the administrative reform, thanked the delegates for the courteous and friendly form of the protest, and, since they were anxious to point out that the step had no political character, declared that the Government had unanimously decided to adhere strictly to the decrees and that it will put the question of confidence on each of them, rejecting any amendment. Mr. Poincaré added that Parliament will have the power to make any modification it judges appropriate. To some deputies who expressed the fear that the Government's inflexible attitude might provoke a Cabinet crisis, Mr. Poincaré replied that in such a case it will not be difficult to form another Cabinet of national union. [?]
The End-of-Month Settlement
[?] GENOA, 30 Today at the Stock Exchange there was a day of nervousness, and the usual end-of-month settlement did not take place, in order to try to resolve the situation of various insolvent parties in the best way possible. To this end the Stockbrokers' Syndicate and the brokers themselves are working personally, granting extensions and accepting part payments. And this also so as not to put many traders in particular in a critical position. No transactions, therefore, and only approximate prices were made, simply to calm the many apprehensions. Operators and exchange agents alike are devoting themselves with every goodwill to this work of reassurance. TURIN, 30 The settlement could not be closed by today; indeed, it is expected that positions will not be definitively outlined until Monday. As of today three stockbrokers (Martini, Bianco-De Cosimi, Claudio Treves), three commission agents and two important operators had declared themselves insolvent. As to the causes that led to the suspension of the settlement, the disaster of the Genoa stockbroker Ugo should be noted, with whom many of our professionals had business relations. They therefore found themselves unable to make the regular deliveries to the Bank of Italy of the securities they were expecting precisely from Ugo. Gen. Gonzaga leaves the command of the Militia FLORENCE, 30
Context
Why the Chamberlain–Mussolini talks invited so much speculation
The Tribuna commentary quoted by Il Piccolo insists that the Mussolini–Chamberlain conversation rested on personal 'sympathy' and 'cannot be the matter of concrete definitions and journalistic lists'. That fits how the two men actually met. Peter Edwards, working from the Chamberlain Papers and British and Italian diplomatic documents, records that during Chamberlain's time as Foreign Secretary (November 1924 to June 1929) the two met five times in complete privacy, with no aides or interpreters, because both spoke fluent French. Their communiqués stressed personal friendship and political harmony but left out the subjects discussed. That vagueness fed rumours of secret agreements and deals, and Mussolini was later compelled to deny publicly the widespread assumption that he had sought and received Chamberlain's approval for Italian foreign policy at these meetings. Among the press sources cited in Edwards's notes is the Corriere della Sera of 1 October 1926, the same day as this page. Edwards concludes from the documents that much of the contemporary speculation was very wide of the mark. The Tribuna's claims that Europe could not do without Italy, and that questions such as Tangier and Abyssinia were already clear, are the Fascist press's own framing. What the diplomatic record establishes is that the meetings were private and that their communiqués said little.
The decree-laws behind the deputies' protest to Poincaré
The 'administrative reform' that the parliamentary delegation protested to Poincaré was carried out through decree-laws issued as economy measures under the law of 3 August 1926. The best known, the decree of 10 September 1926, cut 106 of France's 286 sub-prefectures and 70 posts of prefectural secretary-general; it was a decree-law under Article 1 of that August law. The reform had first been proposed by Louis Marin's parliamentary commission in 1922, but its 1923 report met resistance. Poincaré, back as premier in 1926, pushed it through as part of putting the public finances in order, alongside higher taxes. Some rural departments lost two sub-prefectures, and the reorganisation also reached courts and gendarmerie posts. The article shows how the government planned to protect the decrees when they came before Parliament: it would make each one a matter of confidence and reject amendments, while Poincaré warned that if the cabinet fell, another national-union government could easily be formed. The reform largely stood, with a few corrections made in some departments during the 1930s.
The stock-exchange crisis and Mussolini's lira policy
The suspended settlements in Genoa and Turin came six weeks after Mussolini's speech at Pesaro on 18 August 1926. That speech announced a revaluation of the lira later known as 'Quota 90', which aimed to peg the currency at 92.46 lire to the pound by December 1927, the rate that had prevailed when he took power in 1922. It has been described as the most controversial measure of his government before 1929. His own finance minister, Giuseppe Volpi, thought it a drastic overvaluation, and many historians see it as a political show of will rather than an economic calculation. In a letter of 8 August 1926 Mussolini wrote that the fate of the regime was tied to the lira. The two settlement dispatches translated here do not mention the currency. They explain the crisis in narrower terms: three brokers, three commission agents and two large operators declared insolvent in Turin, and the collapse of the Genoa broker Ugo, which left Turin firms unable to deliver securities to the Bank of Italy. The dispatches do not link these particular failures to the revaluation drive, and the evidence cited here does not either; what it documents is the policy climate in which the exchanges were operating.
Original
Nè senza nè contro l'Italia
[?] Naturalmente, poichè c'è dappertutto molta stampa europea e anche non pochi uomini politici, i quali continuano a credere che ci possa essere una politica europea senza l'Italia (il che significa contro l'Italia) il riconoscimento di un'azione italiana, di una posizione italiana, di una autorità italiana è una sorpresa irritante, una constatazione tormentosa. Soprattutto quando questo riconoscimento si deve rivolgere all'uomo che interessa il mondo e che la vittoria italiana ha espresso come suo rivendicatore: a Mussolini. Naturalmente c'è ancora una stampa nostrana socitl-democratica - continua il giornale - la quale, scodinzolando di gioia fuori dell'uscio del colloquio Briand-Stresemann e sbracciandosi a fare da pacere tra Poincaré e le rivendicazioni categoriche della Germania, mostra come la vecchia Italia si faceva lasciare ai margini della politica europea in una funzione grottesca e apologetica di tutte le riconciliazioni altrui, anche di quelle che si incontrarono a offendere l'Italia. Ma questo constatato, le cose non mutano, e la realtà è quella che l'incontro di Mussolini con Chamberlain indica tranquillamente, senza messa in scena giornalistica. Quanto ad altri problemi che possono essere argomento del colloquio, sono, come quelli di Tangeri e dell'Abissinia, già chiari nei termini recentemente raggiunti, e le intese dei due ministri non possono che riconfermare i già evidenti punti di accordo fra i due Governi. C'è poi quell'esame possibile delle grandi direttive orientatrici in una così vasta e complessa crisi come quella che tocca tutto il Continente. E certo, in queste direttive, Mussolini, che non ama il contingente diplomatico, ha da vedere e da dire. Ma questo esame è più particolarmente connesso alla simpatia che lega il Primo Ministro italiano con il ministro degli Esteri britannico, ed esso non può essere materia di definizioni concrete e di elencazioni giornalistiche. Certo si può immaginare - conclude la Tribuna, che in una conversazione simile, si toccano nel vivo e da vicino le verità assai più che non nei molteplici oratori e consessi internazionali, di cui siamo stati e siamo gratificati da alcuni anni». [?]
Il Governo francese tien fermo
[?] Il signor Poincaré, nel ricevere la delegazione parlamentare, contraria ad alcune modalità della riforma amministrativa, ha ringraziato i delegati per la forma cortese e amichevole della protesta, e poichè essi tenevano a rilevare che il passo non aveva carattere politico, ha dichiarato che il Governo unanime aveva deciso di attenersi rigorosamente ai decreti e che porrà la questione di fiducia su ciascuno di essi, respingendo qualsiasi emendamento. Il signor Poincaré ha aggiunto che il Parlamento avrà la facoltà di portare qualsiasi modificazione che sia giudicata conveniente. Ad alcuni deputati che hanno espresso il timore che l'atteggiamento inflessibile del Governo possa provocare una crisi di Gabinetto, il signor Poincaré ha risposto che in caso simile non sarà difficile costituire un altro Gabinetto di unione nazionale. [?]
La liquidazione di fine mese
[?] GENOVA, 30 Oggi alla Borsa vi è stata una giornata di nervosismo e la consueta liquidazione di fine mese non si è verificata, onde veder di risolvere la situazione di vari insolventi nel miglior modo possibile. A tale scopo il Sindacato agenti di Borsa e gli agenti stessi, personalmente si adoperano concedendo proroghe e accettando acconti. E questo anche per non mettere in critica posizione molti commercianti in modo speciale. Nessuna operazione quindi, e sono stati fatti solamente dei prezzi in via approssimativa, tanto per calmare le molte apprensioni. A quest'opera di tranquillizzazione si dedicano con ogni buona volontà tanto gli operatori che gli agenti di cambio. TORINO, 30 La liquidazione non ha potuto chiudersi entro oggi, anzi si prevede che fino a lunedì le posizioni non saranno definitivamente delineate. A tutt'oggi si erano dichiarati insolventi tre agenti di cambio (Martini, Bianco-De Cosimi, Claudio Treves) tre commissionari e due importanti operatori. Intorno alle cause che hanno determinato la sospensione della liquidazione, va segnalato il disastro dell'agente di cambio Ugo di Genova, con cui molti dei nostri professionisti erano in rapporti d'affari. Essi si sono quindi trovati impossibilitati a fare alla Banca d'Italia le consegne regolari dei titoli che attendevano appunto dall'Ugo. Il gen. Gonzaga abbandona il comando della Milizia FIRENZE, 30
Source: Source: Internet Archive