Il Piccolo
- Supervision of the Fascist press
- Filippo Naldi arrested in Paris
- Polish coal for Italy
Il Piccolo's front page of 19 October 1926, in the portions read here, carried a Rome report on a Tribuna commentary about the Fascist party statute's rule that federal secretaries must supervise the party press. The Tribuna accepted that the Fascist press must obey party directives, but warned that local leaders might stretch the word and asked which papers actually counted as party press. From Bologna the paper reported that Filippo Naldi had been arrested in Paris and would be brought to Bologna once the extradition request went through. It then began an item on army disciplinary proceedings against General Bencivenga. A Rome report described the Ministry of National Economy raising the number of rail wagons for Polish coal as the British strike dragged on. It followed the tail end of a report on reducing Allied debts and German reparations.
This reading covers three excerpts from a partially read page. The OCR was heavily corrupted, so the excerpts were transcribed from the page images. The first excerpt opens with the tail of an unrelated item about young foreigners and seamanship and breaks off mid-word. The Naldi excerpt ends at the opening clause of the Bencivenga item, and the coal excerpt opens with the end of a report on debts and reparations and stops mid-sentence. Tile edges cut off line beginnings in several columns, including the Belgium, Shanghai and Nobile stories, which are not translated here. The tops of the main headlines are also cut off between tiles.
Translation
Supervision of the Fascist press
…to practise seamanship, young people belonging to a nation bound to Italy by ties of friendship.
Supervision of the Fascist press by the federal secretaries
ROME, 18 — Commenting on the 18th rule of the statute of the P.N.F., which states that the federal secretaries must supervise the party press, the Tribuna writes: "It is needless to state at the outset that by supervision is meant requiring of the Fascist press a line perfectly obedient to the political directives of the Party. There is nothing to add and nothing to object to; but there is the risk that some gerarca may understand it somewhat differently, and in that case the word 'supervise' raises a complex problem of a professional order that must be clearly defined. First of all it is necessary to specify what the party press is: whether only the official organs of the Federations (in which case it is obvious that the secretary should supervise, since the newspaper falls within the sphere of his duties and his responsibilities) or also all the dailies and weeklies, which it would be absurd not to consider wholly Fas-
Filippo Naldi arrested in Paris
Filippo Naldi arrested in Paris, to be brought to Bologna
BOLOGNA, 18 — We are able today to confirm that the arrest of Filippo Naldi has really taken place in Paris, as was announced three or four days ago to the Procurator General of our city. A request has also been made for the prompt dispatch of the arrest warrant, in order to hasten the extradition request. Dr. Naldi will be brought to Bologna.
The disciplinary proceedings against Gen. Bencivenga
ROME, 18 — Regarding a report in the Informatore della Stampa, which announced that the Army Disciplinary Council is examining the position of General Bencivenga following the seizure of the well-known instructions of the anti-Fascist general, issued for the struggle against Fascism, the
Polish coal for Italy
…revised. There will be, in other words, a partial remission of debts and reparations: England and the United States will agree to a reduction of the debts owed by the Allied nations, and the Allies for their part will grant Germany a considerable reduction of reparations.
Polish coal for Italy
From 140 to 600 wagons a day
ROME, 18 — The Ministry of National Economy, having weighed the importance that the supply of coal from the Polish mines may have for us, has decided to increase (as it has in fact already increased) the number of wagons available for transporting this fuel. Although the Italian railways are still engaged in the grape campaign, which requires an enormous number of wagons, it has been fixed that the minimum number of wagons available to the international coal service (Polish zone) shall be 140 a day. The example of Germany, which foresees a prolongation of the English strike and therefore the advisability of not emptying its stockpiles, is pushing Italy to make suitable use of the resources
Context
The new Fascist party statute and who would police the press
The Tribuna's commentary concerns a rule of the party statute requiring the PNF's federal secretaries to supervise the party press. According to Treccani's Dizionario di Storia, Mussolini replaced the party secretary Farinacci with Turati in March 1926, and in October 1926 had a new party statute approved that, among other things, limited the party's autonomy and abolished every form of internal election. The same entry says Farinacci's idea of the party was the opposite of Mussolini's, since Mussolini gave the state supremacy over the party. Against that background the Tribuna's argument is telling. It raises no objection to the principle that the Fascist press must follow party directives. What worries it is that a local gerarca might extend supervision beyond the federations' own official organs to every daily and weekly regarded as Fascist. Il Piccolo's report does not say whether the rule it cites belongs to the newly approved text. Even so, the commentary fits a live question of the time: whether control over journalism would be exercised from the centre or by provincial party bosses.
The press laws already binding Italian newspapers in 1926
By October 1926 Italian newspapers already operated under a restrictive legal regime set by the state. Italian Wikipedia's article on Fascist censorship records that press law no. 2307 came into force on 31 December 1925. Under that law, newspapers could be directed, written and printed only if they had a responsible manager recognised by the prefect, that is, by the government. The same article states that in October 1926 a failed attack on Mussolini in Bologna gave the regime the pretext to suppress Avanti!, the Socialist party organ. The state therefore already controlled who could run a newspaper, and the statute rule discussed by the Tribuna added a second line of oversight through the party. Read this way, the 'professional problem' the Tribuna wanted defined was how party supervision would overlap with state control for journalists at papers that called themselves Fascist.
Why Bologna wanted Filippo Naldi
Filippo Naldi was a familiar figure in Bologna journalism. Mauro Canali's biography in Treccani's Dizionario Biografico says that at the end of 1913 he took over the direction of Il Resto del Carlino with a commitment to give it a liberal line. The same biography attributes his fall to partial involvement in secondary aspects of the Matteotti murder of June 1924. It adds that in June 1926, pursued by an arrest warrant for the bankruptcy of the Banco adriatico di cambio, he took refuge in France. The Bologna report does not name the charge, but that warrant is the likely link to the Procurator General and the extradition request it describes. The paper stated flatly that Naldi would be brought to Bologna. The biography instead shows him remaining in France, where in 1930 he was working as a manager and consultant for oil companies, and reappearing in Rome only after 18 years in France, in the confused days after Mussolini's fall. The biography does not mention a Paris arrest in October 1926, so these sources cannot confirm that the arrest the paper reported took place.
British coal dispute, German reparations and Polish wagons
The coal report ties Italy's fuel supply to the British labour conflict. English Wikipedia's article on the 1926 general strike records that it took place from 4 to 12 May 1926 and was an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to prevent wage cuts and worse conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. When the paper wrote in October of a prolonged 'English strike', it was referring to the miners' dispute, which on the paper's account was still going on after the general strike had ended. The same article notes that reduced British coal exports during the First World War let other countries fill the gap, particularly the United States, Poland and Germany. Under the Dawes Plan, implemented in 1924, Germany exported 'free coal' to France and Italy as part of its war reparations. That context links both parts of the excerpt. The item just before it, on cutting German reparations, touched one of Italy's sources of coal, and the Ministry of National Economy in Rome expanded rail deliveries from the Polish mines, setting a minimum of 140 wagons a day under a headline figure of 600.
Original
La vigilanza sulla stampa fascista
tare nautica giovani appartenenti ad una nazione che ha con l'Italia vincoli di amicizia. La vigilanza sulla stampa fascista da parte dei segretari federali ROMA, 18 Commentando la 18. a norma dello statuto del P. N. F., la quale avverte che i segretari federali devono invigilare sulla stampa di partito, la Tribuna scrive: «E ' inutile premettere che per vigilanza si intende esigere dalla stampa fascista una linea perfettamente ossequiente alle direttive politiche dl Partito. Non vi è nulla da aggiungere e da obiettare, ma è il rischio che qualche gerarca la intenda un po ' diversamente, e in tal caso quella parola «invigilare» investe un complesso problema di ordine professionale che va ben definito. Anzitutto occorre precisare quale sia la stampa del partito: se soltanto gli organi ufficiali delle Federazioni (e in tal caso è ovvio che il segretario vigili, in quanto il giornale rientra nel campo delle sue attribuzioni e delle sue responsabilità) o anche tutti i quotidiani e settimanali, che sarebbe assurdo non considerare integralmente fa -
Filippo Naldi arrestato a Parigi
Filippo Naldi arrestato a Parigi per essere tradotto a Bologna BOLOGNA, 18 Siamo in grado oggi di assicurare che realmente, come tre o quattro giorni or sono veniva annunziato, al Procuratore generale della nostra città, è avvenuto a Parigi l'arresto di Filippo Naldi. Si è fatta inoltre richiesta di un sollecito inoltro del mandato di cattura per affrettare la richiesta di estradizione. Il dott. Naldi verrà tradotto a Bologna. Il procedimento disciplinara contro il gen. Bencivenga ROMA, 18 A proposito di una pubblicazione dell'Informatore della Stampa, il quale ha annunche il Consiglio di disciplina dell'Esercito sta esaminando la posizione del generale Bencivenga in seguito al sequestro delle note istruzioni del generale antifascista, emanate per la lotta contro il Fascismo, il
Carbone polacco per l'Italia
schi riveduti. Vi sarà, in altre parole, un parziale condono dei debiti e delle riparazioni: l'Inghilterra e gli Stati Uniti consentiranno ad una riduzione dei debiti da parte delle nazioni alleate e dal canto loro gli alleati accorderanno alla Germania una riduzione notevole delle riparazioni. Carbone polacco per l'Italia Da 140 a 600 vagoni al giorno ROMA, 18 Il Ministero dell'Economia nazionale, valutata l'importanza che può avere per noi il rifornimento di carbone dalle miniere polacche, ha stabilito di aumentare (come ha già aumentato di fatto) il numero dei vagoni a disposizione del trasporto di questo combustibile. Pur essendo ancora le ferrovie italiane impegnate per la campagna delle uve, le quali richiedono un'enorme quantità di carri, è stato fissato che il minimo dei vagoni a disposizione del servizio internazionale del carbone (zona polacca) sia di 140 al giorno. L'esempio della Germania che prevede il prolungarsi dello sciopero inglese, e perciò l'opportunità di non svuotare i suoi magazzini, spinge l'Italia a sfruttare convenientemente le risorse
Source: Source: Internet Archive