Il Piccolo
- The consolidation of relations between Italy and Bulgaria
- The proposals for disarmament
- The meeting of the Fascist Directorate
Il Piccolo of 7 October 1926 put Rome's Balkan diplomacy at the top of its page. It printed the official communiqué on the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Buroff's long, cordial talk with Mussolini at Palazzo Chigi, and it reported that Greek delegates had come to Rome to settle the last disputed points of a new Italo-Greek commercial treaty, with trade meanwhile running under a temporary modus vivendi signed on 10 September. From Zurich the paper reported that a League of Nations mixed commission on the economic side of disarmament had accepted a proposal to treat preparation for chemical or bacteriological warfare as a crime. A Fascist party bulletin listed who attended the National Directorate's meeting under Mussolini, held to prepare the next evening's session of the Fascist Grand Council. This reading covers only part of the front page; stories such as the Seeckt resignation and the British miners' strike survive only in fragments.
This reading covers three front-page excerpts. The tiles cut off columns at their edges, so other stories, including the Seeckt resignation, Rakowski's declarations and the British miners' strike, survive only in fragments and are not translated. A pasted library label covers part of the masthead, the narrow classified strips in the left margin cannot be read, and a few blotted words mark where the excerpts stop. Names and numbers were not reconstructed.
Translation
The consolidation of relations between Italy and Bulgaria
The consolidation of relations between Italy and Bulgaria the aim of Mussolini's meeting with Buroff
An official communiqué
ROME, 6 — The Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Mr. Buroff, who arrived in Rome last night, went this morning to Palazzo Chigi, where he was received by the Hon. Mussolini. After the talk the following official communiqué was issued: "The Head of Government this morning received at Palazzo Chigi the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Buroff. In the long, cordial conversation between the two statesmen, all the questions of particular concern to the consolidation of the friendly relations between Italy and Bulgaria were examined. His Excellency Mussolini expressed to His Excellency Buroff, also on behalf of the Italian Government and people, his gratitude for the welcome visit, which is a fresh proof of the cordiality existing between the two countries."
A policy of peace and economic collaboration
Italo-Greek negotiations in Rome for a commercial treaty
ROME, 6 — Representatives of the Greek Government have arrived in Rome, charged with settling the last points still in dispute in the new commercial treaty between Italy and Greece, which, as is known, has for some time been in the course of negotiation between the two countries. On 10 September last a "modus vivendi" for trade was signed on a temporary basis between the two Governments, since on that day the validity of the various extensions granted from time to time to the old Italo-Greek commercial treaty had expired. The aforesaid "modus vivendi", which substantially keeps almost all the clauses of the old treaty, will expire as soon as the new pact between the two nations is signed. As soon as they arrived in Rome, the representatives of the Greek Government began their series of talks with the Italian representatives, designated respectively by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the Ministry of the National Economy, to examine the various points of the draft of the new treaty on which agreement had not yet been reached in the course of the negotiations held in Athens in recent months.
The proposals for disarmament
The proposals for disarmament formulated by the Geneva Commission
ZURICH, 6 — The Mixed Commission of the League of Nations, charged with studying the economic aspect of the questions relating to disarmament, has concluded its work by presenting two reports, the text of which the League secretariat publishes today. It is worth noting that in them the Mixed Commission accepted the proposal to regard military and civil preparation, and particularly the preparation of air forces, for chemical warfare or warfare by means of bacteria as a crime. To that end the nations should undertake to punish severely every preparation of this kind.
The meeting of the Fascist Directorate
New Series – No. 2130
The meeting of the Fascist Directorate with the Head of Government
ROME, 6 — The Press Office of the P.N.F. announces: The National Directorate of the Party met today at 3 p.m. at Palazzo Chigi, with His Excellency the Head of Government. Present at the meeting, besides His Excellency Minister Federzoni, were the Hon. Turati, general secretary of the Party; the deputy general secretaries, the Hon. Arpinati, the Hon. Ricci, the Hon. Starace, Comm. Melchiori and Dr. Bonelli; the member of the Directorate the Hon. Blanc; the administrative general secretary Comm. Marinelli; and General Bazan, of the general command of the Militia. Absent with excuse: the Hon. Maraviglia, Bastianini and Rossoni and Comm. Marghinotti. Under the chairmanship of the Duce, the Directorate examined the subjects placed on the agenda for tomorrow evening's meeting of the Fascist Grand Council and set the order of business. The session was closed at 6 p.m.
Context
Atanas Burov, Bulgaria's foreign minister from 1926
The "signor Buroff" of the Rome communiqué is Atanas Burov, a Bulgarian banker and politician who served as minister of foreign affairs from 4 January 1926 to 29 June 1931, so his visit to Mussolini came in his first year in the post. His Wikipedia biography credits him, together with the finance minister Mollov, with negotiating the Refugee Loan and the Stability Loan and with extending the moratorium on Bulgaria's reparation debts. The communiqué printed by Il Piccolo speaks only of "all the questions" bearing on friendly relations between the two countries and names no financial matter. The link between Burov's diplomacy and these loans is therefore background drawn from later records, not something the paper reported.
The 1926 Refugee Loan and its Italian lenders
In 1926 the League of Nations sent a commissioner to Bulgaria to assess how grave its refugee problem was. According to Vagabond magazine, René Charron, an envoy of the League of Nations' financial service, worked in Bulgaria from 1926 to 1932 and helped 250,000 Bulgarian refugees. On 22 December 1926, about eleven weeks after Burov's call at Palazzo Chigi, the Bulgarian government signed the so-called Refugee Loan for £2.4 million, with an additional $4.5 million coming from British, American, Swiss, Italian and Dutch banks. The magazine adds that the loan impinged on the exclusive position French banks had held for years as Bulgaria's main creditors. Italian banks' share in the lending is thus on record; whether the loan was discussed in Rome on 6 October is stated neither in the communiqué nor in these sources.
Chemical and bacteriological warfare in the League's disarmament work
The Zurich report belongs to a longer line of League of Nations work on armaments. A Temporary Mixed Commission on Armaments, set up in 1921, had already discussed proposals such as prohibiting chemical warfare and the bombing of civilian populations, and limiting artillery and tanks. In 1925, 37 states signed a Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. As its title shows, that protocol addressed use. The proposal Il Piccolo reported, to treat military and civil preparation for such warfare as a crime that nations would undertake to punish, reached beyond use to preparation itself. In 1926 the League also set up the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference, and only after six years of preparations did the Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments (1932–37) open.
The party Directorate and the Fascist Grand Council in 1926
The National Directorate met to prepare business for the Fascist Grand Council, which in October 1926 was still an organ of the National Fascist Party: it had been created as a party body in 1922 and became a state body only on 9 December 1928. The powers Wikipedia lists for the council include the nomination of the party secretary and other party leaders and the approval of the party statutes. The general secretary present at Palazzo Chigi was Augusto Turati, who held the post from 1926 to 1930 and helped consolidate Mussolini's rule. The party bulletin records who attended and who sent apologies, but it gives no agenda; it says only that the Directorate examined the subjects for the Grand Council's session the following evening. The same council later voted on Mussolini's leadership on the night of 24–25 July 1943, when the motion passed with 19 votes for, 8 against and one abstention.
Original
Il consolidamento dei rapporti fra Italia e Bulgaria
Il consolidamento dei rapporti fra Italia e Bulgaria scopo dell'incontro di Mussolini con Buroff Un comunicato ufficiale ROMA, 6 Il ministro degli Esteri bugaro, signor Buroff, giunto ieri sera a Roma, si è recato stamane a palazzo Chigi, ove è stato ricevuto dall'on. Mussolini. Dopo il colloquio è stato diramato il seguente comunicato ufficiale: " Il Capo del Governo ha ricevuto stamane a Palazzo Chigi, il ministro degli Esteri di Bulgaria, signor Buroff. Nel lungo, cordiale colloquio fra i due uomini di stato, sono state esaminate tutte le questioni che particolarmente interessano il consolidamento degli amichevoli rapporti fra Italia e Bulgaria. S. E. Mussolini ha espresso a S. E. Buroff, a nome anche del Governo e del popolo italiano, la sua riconoscenza per la gradita visita, che è una nuova prova della cordialità esistente fra i due paesi ". Politica di pace e collaborazione economica Negoziati italo-ellenici a Roma per un trattato di commercio ROMA, 6 Sono giunti a Roma i rappresentanti del Governo greco, con l'incarico di definire gli ultimi punti ancora controversi del nuovo trattato di commercio fra l'Italia e la Grecia, che, come è noto, già da tempo è in corso di stipulazione tra i due paesi. Il 10 settembre scorso è stato firmato in via temporanea, tra i due Governi, un «modus vivendi» per gli scambi commerciali, essendo venuta in quel giorno a scadere la validità delle varie proroghe accordate via via al vecchio trattato di commercio italo-greco. Il «modus vivendi» suddetto, che mantiene sostanzialmente quasi tutte le clausole del vecchio trattato, scadrà non appena firmato il nuovo patto fra le due nazioni. I rappresentanti del Governo greco non appena giunti a Roma hanno iniziato la serie dei loro colloqui con i rappresentanti italiani, rispettivamente designati dal Ministero degli Esteri e da quello dell'Economia Nazionale, per esaminare i vari punti dello schema del nuovo trattato sui quali non è ancora intervenuto l'accordo nel corso delle trattative svoltesi nei mesi scorsi ad Atene.
Le proposte per il disarmo
Le proposte per il disarmo formulate dalla Commissione ginevrina ZURIGO, 6 La Commissione mista della Società delle Nazioni, incaricata di studiare l'aspetto economico delle questioni relative al disarmo, ha terminato i suoi lavori presentando due rapporti, dei quali il segretariato della Società pubblica oggi il testo. Di essi è notevole rilevare che la Commissione mista ha accettato la proposta di considerare la preparazione militare e civile e particolarmente di forze aeree alla guerra chimica o mediante bacteri come un delitto. All'uopo le nazioni dovrebbero impegnarsi a punire severamente ogni preparazione del genere.
La riunione del Direttorio fascista
Nuova Serie - N. 2130 La riunione del Direttorio fascista presso il Capo del Governo ROMA, 6 L'Ufficio stampa del P. N. F. comunica: Si è riunito oggi alle ore 15, a Palazzo Chigi, presso S. E. il Capo del Governo, il Direttorio nazionale del Partito. Erano presenti alla riunione, oltre S. E. il ministro Federzoni, l'on. Turati, segretario generale del Partito, i vicesegretari generali, on. Arpinati, on. Ricci, on. Starace, comm. Melchiori, dott. Bonelli, il membro del Direttorio on. Blanc, il segretario generale amministrativo comm. Marinelli, il generale Bazan, del comando generale della Milizia. Assenti giustificati: gli on. Maraviglia, Bastianini, Rossoni ed il comm. Marghinotti. Sotto la presidenza del Duce, il Direttorio ha esaminato gli argomenti posti all'ordine del giorno per la riunione di domani sera del Gran Consiglio Fascista, ed ha disposto l'ordine dei lavori. La seduta è stata tolta alle ore 18.
Source: Source: Internet Archive