Il Piccolo
- The Minister's Speech
- The Success of the Battle for Grain
- Fears of a Red Advance on Shanghai
Il Piccolo of Trieste led its 13 October 1926 front page with Finance Minister Count Volpi in Genoa. He had come for the Columbus and Marco Polo celebrations, and according to the headline he reaffirmed the road traced by Mussolini and issued a stern warning. The surviving text stops when he arrives at the Chamber of Commerce. A Rome item denounced defeatist political and stock-exchange rumours spread to cause panic. A report on the Battle for Grain cited eight years of harvest statistics, praised the Government and the itinerant agricultural chairs, and quoted a forecast that Italy would grow all the wheat it needed in about six years. From London came the first details of the fall of Wuchang. The paper said its 15,000 defenders had held out for 40 days before hardship and treachery forced a surrender, and the headline raised fears of a Red advance on Shanghai.
Translation
The Minister's Speech
…half-year and year in proportion. Payment in advance. Subscriptions may start on any day, but must end with the calendar quarter. In Trieste they are received at Piazza Goldoni No. 1, ground floor. From outside the city, send … to the administration of the newspaper «Il Piccolo», via Silvio Pellico No. 6. One copy 30 cents, back issues 60 cents. – … are neither kept nor return… Year 42. Offices: Editorial: Via Silvio Pellico No. … Paid advertisements and subscri… Count Volpi reaffirms in Genoa: "The road traced by Mussolini is the s… national one" – A stern warning to the … The minister's speech. GENOA, 12. The Minister of Finance, Count Volpi, who arrived in Genoa this morning to represent the Government at the ceremonies celebrating Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo, went at 10 o'clock to the Chamber of Commerce, where the royal commissioner, Grand Officer Moresco, was waiting for him. The splendid halls … The phenomen… There are few mil… that undergo the … of money … and that reflect … limited scope … financ… Since the post-war … for two years the … constant fluctuations and …
The Success of the Battle for Grain
…defeatist rum… political and stock-exchange … ROME, 12. … under the title «Ma…: new … circulated in Rome to provoke panic … these rumours too … of varying tendency, are … undisturbed … There does not remain … to public opinion … a double purpose … the two illicit aims … associated) are … that works … to draw the profit … political and speculation … the Giornale d'Italia … to exclude words and news … to keep the cit… of panic and of … more easily … statistics of the last eight years and comparing with one another the alternating harvests of the lean years with those of the fat years, it comes to the conclusion that «the Italians are on the right path». The article points out the credit for this result that belongs to the Government and to the itinerant chairs of agriculture, which through their propaganda have made themselves diligent executors of the basic instructions to increase production without harming the other agricultural products by enlarging the area devoted to wheat. The article also notes – making due allowance for the differences between the two crops – how the rational cultivation of rice has already made it possible to double its output, and concludes: «Italian specialists think that the battle for grain will reach in about six years the goal it has set itself, namely that of giving Italy its requirement of wheat; and it is to be hoped that they are right. To the people to whom fate was so stingy in allotting wheat fields, everyone wishes, without a shadow of jealousy, victory in this battle, in which the adversary is represented by lazy habit or by ignorance. (…
Fears of a Red Advance on Shanghai
…height (one column wide): commercial notices, … L. 2. Announcements, death notices and acknowledgements L. 2.50. … of the newspaper: Public information, Cinema…, Economic …, Honours, Orange blossoms, Degrees, … per page. Government taxes extra. Payment in advance. … one … for publication on fixed days and in fixed positions. …Italian…, Trieste, Piazza Carlo Goldoni 1. Telephone 801. L. 227. No. 801. New Series – No. 2135 … Fears of a Red advance on Shanghai after the fall of Wu Chang. LONDON, 12. The first details of the surrender of Wu Chang are known. The city fell on Sunday, the anniversary of the proclamation of the Chinese Republic. Wu Chang, garrisoned by 15,000 men, had been resisting the siege by the Reds for 40 days, and its capitulation was due not only to the straits in which the city was living, but also to treachery. Saba –
Context
Volpi, the Pesaro speech and the 'Quota 90' revaluation
The Genoa report shows Finance Minister Count Giuseppe Volpi publicly endorsing "the road traced by Mussolini". In October 1926 that road was above all the revaluation of the lira. Mussolini had announced it in a speech at Pesaro on 18 August 1926, setting a target of 92.46 lire to the pound sterling. That had been the prevailing market rate when he took power in 1922, but during 1926 the lira had fallen as low as 150 to the pound. On 8 August Mussolini had written to Volpi that the fate of the regime was tied to the lira. Historians record that Volpi himself preferred a rate of about 120 or 125 to the pound and considered the quota a drastic overvaluation. The minister who displays loyalty and delivers a "stern warning" in the headline therefore privately doubted the target he was defending. The paper reports only the government's public unity.
How the Battle for Grain was tied to the lira policy
The grain report appears on the same page as a Rome item attacking "defeatist" rumours meant to spread panic on the stock exchange. Both pieces present the economy as a series of battles. The grain article credits the Government and the itinerant agricultural chairs with rising output. It also repeats specialists' forecast that Italy would grow all the wheat it needed in about six years. That timetable is the article's own forecast and not a measured result. In practice the currency policy and the grain campaign were linked. Tariffs on unwanted imports such as consumer goods and foodstuffs kept food prices high and restricted demand, which protected Mussolini's Battle for Grain. Working Italians paid for it: wages came to fall further than food prices, and working-class living standards declined rapidly.
How the siege of Wuchang ended
Wuchang was one of the three cities at the confluence of the Han and Yangtze rivers and the stronghold of the warlord Wu Peifu. The Kuomintang's Northern Expedition formally began on 9 July 1926, and the Nationalist command decided on a direct assault on Wuchang. By 2 September the National Revolutionary Army had nearly surrounded the city. Wu and most of his army fled north to Henan, but the troops left inside the walls held out for over a month. The Nationalists took Hanyang on 6 September and Hankow two days later. The remaining defenders of Wuchang surrendered on 10 October, the same day the Canton–Hong Kong strike was called off, and the surrender completed the conquest of Hubei. The London report's 40-day siege fits this chronology. Its figure of 15,000 defenders and its claim of treachery are the paper's own reporting.
Why the fall of Wuchang raised fears for Shanghai
The paper calls the Nationalist forces "Reds". The label reflects the Northern Expedition's ties to the Communists and to Moscow: Soviet aid to the Kuomintang government and its co-operation with the Chinese Communist Party continued, and the initial strategy of the advance was largely devised by the Soviet advisers Mikhail Borodin and Vasily Blyukher. Foreign diplomats had watched the advance from its first weeks. In July 1926 the American consul general at Canton reported that local leaders were predicting an early capture of Hankow and Wuchang. Shanghai mattered to London because its International Settlement was governed by the British and Americans. On 30 May 1925 the largely British-run Shanghai Municipal Police had opened fire on demonstrators there who were protesting against foreign interference in China. In October 1926 Shanghai was held by the warlord Sun Chuanfang. On 16 October, days after this report, Sun's civil governor of Zhejiang, Xia Chao, declared the province independent, defected to the Nationalists and attacked Shanghai, but he was almost immediately forced back.
Original
Il discorso del ministro
semestre ed anno in proporzione. Pagamenti anticipati. L'abbonament da qualunque giorno, ma deve finire col trimestre solare. A Trieste si ricevono in Piazza Goldoni N. 1, pianterreno. Da fuori inviare v l'amministrazione del giornale «Il Piccolo» via Silvio Pellico N. 6. Il cent. 30, arretrato cent. 60. - Non si conservano e non si restituisc Anno 42 Uffici: Redazione: Via Silvio Pellico N. Inserzioni a pagamento e abbona Il conte Volpi riafferma a Genova " La via tracciata da Mussolini è la s nazionale,, - Un severo monito alla Il discorso del ministro GENOVA, 12 Il ministro delle Finanze, conte Volpi, giunto stamane a Genova per rappresentare il Governo alle cerimonie celebrative di Cristoforo Colombo e di Marco Polo, si è recato alle ore 10 alla Camera di commercio, ove era ad attenderlo il commissario regio gr. uff. Moresco. Gli splendidi saloni I fenome Sono pochi mili che subiscono il zione del denaro zioni, e che riflett limitata portata ziario. Dal dopo da due anni la qu lazioni costanti e
Il successo della battaglia del grano
re disfattiste olitica e borsistica ROMA, 12 sotto il titolo «Maa: nuovo corse a Roma a provocare panico te anche queste voci varia tendenza, sono e, indisturbata trannza. Non rimane alll'opinione pubblica a un doppio scopo i due fini illeciti si ssociati) vengono tenazione che lavora seavoro trarre il rendiitica e la speculazioa il Giornale d'Italia udere parole e notiro mantenere la cito di panico e di ecessi più facilmente statistiche degli ultimi otto anni e paragonando tra loro i raccolti alterni degli anni magri con quelli grassi, viene alla conclusione che «gli italiani sono sulla giusta via». L'articolo rileva il merito che di tale risultato spetta al Governo e alle cattedre ambulanti di agricoltura, le quali con la loro propaganda si sono fatte diligenti esecutrici delle istruzioni fondamentali di aumentare la produzione senza danneggiare con l'accrescimento della superficie dedicata al frumento le altre produzioni agricole. L'articolo nota pure - facendo le debite differenze fra le due culture - come la coltivazione razionale del riso abbia già permesso di raddoppiarne la produzione e conclude: «Gli specialisti italiani pensano che la battaglia del grano raggiungerà in circa sei anni lo scopo che essa si prefigge, quello cioè di dare all'Italia il suo fabbisogno di frumento; ed è da augurare che essi sieno nel vero. Al popolo a cui la sorte fu tanto avara nell'assegnare i campi di frumento, ciascuno augura, senza ombra di gelosia, la vittoria in questa battaglia, in cui l'avversario è rappresentato dalla pigra consuetudine o dall'ignoranza. (fu I men si sos inv Le I nal per bila ovu rip soc var nel 25 pro der app die che
Timori d'avanzata rossa su Sciangai
tezza (larghezza una col.): Avvisi commerciali, indui L. 2. Comunicati, mortuari e ringraziamenti L. 2. 50. del giornale: Informazioni del pubblico, Cinematogravità Economica, Onorificenze, Fiori d'arancio, Lauree, a pagina. Tasse gov. in più. Pagamenti anticipati. una per pubblicazioni in giorni e posti determinati. aliana, Trieste, Piazza Carlo Goldoni 1. Telefono 801. L. 227. N. 801. Nuova Serie - N. 2135 10 2 cadi sso, asbaeditre, ù o Timori d'avanzata rossa su Sciangai dopo la caduta di Wu Chang LONDRA, 12 Si conoscono i primi particolari della resa di Wu Chang. La città è caduta domenica, anniversario della proclamazione della Repubblica Cinese. Wu Chang, presidiata da 15. 000 uomini, resisteva da 40 giorni all'assedio dei rossi e la capitolazione fu dovuta non solamente alle angustie in cui viveva la città, ma anche al tradimento. Saba -
Source: Source: Internet Archive