Journal de Genève
- The State and the Church in Italy
- Frank Explanations
- The Miracle of the Refugees in Greece
The Journal de Genève front page of 19 October 1926 opened with a dispatch from its Rome correspondent reporting that the Roman question — the unresolved quarrel between the Italian state and the papacy — was again being fought over in Fascist and Catholic newspapers, and that Fascism's favours to religion and the clergy and its campaign against Freemasonry had made a reconciliation look concrete. An editorial signed J. M. answered farmers who accused the paper of wanting their ruin because it opposed the federal wheat monopoly, beginning its explanation with the crisis of Swiss agriculture before the war. A piece on a new book hailed the 'modern Greek miracle' of settling refugees in a country of barely five million people, crediting the refugees, the Greek state and a League of Nations-sponsored loan, and citing a total outlay of £15,225,000.
Translation
The State and the Church in Italy
Our Rome correspondent writes:
The Roman question is back on the table. It is being discussed in the Fascist newspapers and in the Catholic newspapers, and, as always, it is the subject of impassioned polemics.
Since Fascism came to power, the possibility of a reconciliation between the State and the Church in Italy has presented itself in concrete form. The measures taken by the present government in favour of religion and the clergy, the fight against Freemasonry, various legislative or …
Frank Explanations
In certain agricultural circles people persist in believing that we are hostile to the peasants and want their ruin because we oppose the wheat monopoly. We have already denied this erroneous assertion, but a few further explanations seem indispensable to us.
Before the war, the situation of Swiss agriculture had become very critical, the exodus of young farmers to the towns was increasing, and …
The Miracle of the Refugees in Greece
[…] right — and all this in a country of barely five million inhabitants, which was just emerging from an unparalleled national catastrophe.
This feat has been accomplished. And the book that has just been published shows us how. This "modern Greek miracle" was achieved through the combined efforts of the refugees themselves, of the Greek government and people, and of the League of Nations — the latter deciding, in 1923, to sponsor a large loan that Greece issued on the markets of London, Athens and New York.
And if one limits one's curiosity to the financial sacrifices that the settlement of these refugees has required, one need only turn to page 208 of the book in question; there one sees that the total sum spent for this purpose up to now amounts to £15,225,000, of which 5,919,000 …
Context
The Roman Question since 1870
The quarrel the Rome correspondent describes as 'back on the table' went back more than half a century. Italy occupied and annexed Latium, including Rome itself, in 1870, and for some sixty years relations between the papacy and the Italian government stayed hostile; the dispute over the pope's sovereign rights became known as the Roman question. Under the Law of Guarantees of 1871 the Italian government offered the pope the use of the Vatican and Lateran palaces, but not sovereignty over them. The Holy See refused, insisting that the pope's spiritual jurisdiction required clear independence from any political power, and successive popes regarded themselves as 'prisoners in the Vatican'. Pius XI, elected in February 1922, signalled straight away that he wanted to end the long, bitter standoff. When the correspondent writes that Fascism had made reconciliation look 'concrete', he is setting the government's gestures towards the Church against this long record of mutual non-recognition.
Secret talks begun in August 1926
The correspondent's surviving text speaks only of newspaper polemics and government measures, but by October 1926 formal talks were already under way out of public view. In 1925 the justice minister Alfredo Rocco had introduced proposals to reform ecclesiastical legislation; they were withdrawn when Pius XI declared he could not recognise such statutes without prior negotiation and agreement with the Holy See. The episode shows that Fascist legislative moves touching the Church already ran up against the Holy See's insistence on prior negotiation. On 5 August 1926 Domenico Barone, representing Italy, and Francesco Pacelli, legal adviser to the Holy See, began the discussions that eventually succeeded, and their many meetings until 1929 were kept entirely secret. Standard accounts likewise date the start of negotiations between the Holy See and Mussolini's government to 1926. They ended in the pacts signed at the Lateran Palace on 11 February 1929. Nothing in the excerpt shows that the Journal de Genève's correspondent knew of the Barone–Pacelli channel.
The Swiss grain monopoly and the 1926 vote
The editorial's defence makes sense against the history of Swiss grain policy. In the later nineteenth century, railways and steamships tied Switzerland into international trade, and livestock and dairy farming displaced grain growing — the background to the 'very critical' pre-war situation of agriculture the writer begins to describe. When imports stalled in the First World War, the Federal Council introduced a federal grain monopoly in January 1915, a measure long demanded by the Left, together with an obligation to keep stocks. After the war the authorities kept only the securing of grain supply, and Edmund Schulthess, who ran the federal economics department for 23 years, championed keeping the monopoly. The people rejected its retention in 1926, which counts among Schulthess's major defeats, but in 1929 they approved a reintroduction in weakened form. Writing while that 1926 campaign was under way, J. M. is answering farmers who saw opposition to the monopoly as opposition to themselves; the excerpt breaks off before his argument reaches its conclusion.
The 1924 League loan and Greek refugee settlement
The 'miracle' the article praises rested on a hard-won international loan. After the Catastrophe, the relief needs of the refugees arriving in Greece were met at first by the Greek state and by private humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross. Greece's poor credit, budget deficit and inflation made wider resettlement difficult to finance. Through League of Nations mediation, a loan of £12.3 million was contracted in 1924, on terms rather unfavourable to Greece. Its management was entrusted to the Refugee Settlement Commission, which was charged with relieving a largely impoverished population; besides granting land, the Greek state supplied draught animals and tools to revive farming. The article dates the League's decision to sponsor the loan to 1923, while this source dates the contract to 1924. The total of £15,225,000 the article takes from the book's page 208 exceeds the loan figure, and the source gives no breakdown that would explain the difference.
Original
L'Etat et l'Eglise en Italie
L'Etat et l'Eglise en Italie Notre correspndant de Rome nous écrit: La question romaine est revenue sur le ta - [?] is. On en parle daus les journaux fascistes, [?] ans les journaux catholiques, et elle forme, [?] omme toujours, l'objet de polémiques pas - [?] ionnées. Depuis que le fascisme est arrivé au pou - [?] oir, l'éventualité d'une réconciliation entre [?] Etat et l'Eglise en Italie s'est présentée d'une [?] açon concrète. Les mesures prises par le [?] ouvernement actuel en faveur de la religion [?] t du clergé, la lutte contre la franc-maçon - [?] erie, différentes dispositions législatives ou
Franches explications
Franches explications On persiste à croire, dans certains milieux agricoles, que nous sommes hostiles aux paysans et voulons leur ruine parce que nous combattons le monopole du blé. Nous nous sommes déjà inscrits en faux contre cette assertion erronée, mais quelques explications supplémentaires nous paraissent indispensables. Avant la guerre, la situation de l'agriculture suisse était devenue très critique, l'exode des jeunes paysans vers les villes s'accentuait, et
Le miracle des réfugiés en Grèce
[?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] droit - et tout cela, dans un pays d'à peine cinq millions d'habitants et qui sortait d'une catastrophe nationale sans pareille. Ce tour de force a été fait. Et l'ouvrage qui vient de paraître nous indique le comment. Ce «miracle néo-grec» a été réalisé grâce à l'effet conjugué des réfugiés eux-mêmes, du gouvernement et du peuple grecs et de la Société des nations, - celle-ci décidant, en 1923, de patronner un grand emprunt que la Grèce a émis sur les marchés de Londres, d'Athènes et de New-York. Et si l'on ne réduit sa curiosité que pour ce qui est des sacrifices d'argent que l'établissement de ces réfugiés a demandés, l'on n'a qu'à se reporter à la page 208 du livre en question; on y remarque que la somme totale dépensée jusqu'à aujourd'hui à cet effet s'élève à 15. 225. 000 liv. st., dont 5. 919. 000