Il Piccolo
- The Italian method of revaluation
- The Government bans Cook's meetings
- The King and Queen lend assistance
Il Piccolo's front page of 26 October 1926 combined Fascist economic triumphalism, British labour news and royal reportage. A financial commentary credited the regime's policy of control, including strict discipline over money rediscounted to industry, with forcing Italians who had hoarded savings abroad to bring their capital home, and claimed that the Bank of Italy was seeing "fabulous sums" return, some in unexpected names. A fragmentary report from Britain covered a parliamentary debate on the ban on A. J. Cook's miners' meetings: the minister left responsibility for meetings and processions to local chiefs, and Mines Minister Lane Fox promised regularly published official coal prices to curb speculation. From San Rossore came an account of the King and Queen getting out of their car during a storm to help two soldiers haul a drifting motorboat ashore, after which the King had the men driven back to barracks in his own automobile.
This reading covers three excerpts from the front page of Il Piccolo for 26 October 1926. The page's left margin is curled and faded, so the opening letters of many lines are lost. The British coal-strike report is especially fragmentary: words marked [?] could not be read, and words in square brackets in its translation are restorations. Other items, including the heavily garbled Belgian reform columns and split storm reports such as 'Piroscafi e velieri in pericolo', were not translated. The background sources used here do not document the parliamentary debate the Italian report describes or the San Rossore incident itself.
Translation
The Italian method of revaluation
The financial policy of control, down to the iron discipline over money rediscounted to industry, has forced many of those selfish and unfeeling hoarders of their own savings abroad to bring Italian capital back to Italy. No secret is being revealed (and for our part we would indeed like [?] a daily bulletin to be published on this state of the country's financial normalization) in saying that lately (and in these last few days too) the Bank of Italy has been seeing fabulous sums return (some of them in unsuspected names), which are resuming their proper place and their normal function in the Italian economy.
The Government bans Cook's meetings
...[in]itiated by the various agitators. The minister, who in view of this had [thought it] appropriate to leave to the district chief the responsibility of [...] meetings, processions or other demonstrations of the kind. The minister's words were [?] by applause from the majority. During the discussion the Minister of [Mines], Lane Fox, stated that he had held discussions with wholesale buyers and with the coal resale agencies to study the [?] suited to [regulat]ing prices on the coal market, and that a table of the prices officially charged on the market will now be issued periodically, to prevent speculation to the detriment of consumers. [Lloyd] George delivered...
The King and Queen lend assistance
News arrives from San Rossore that, while the violent storm of two days ago was raging, a motorboat moored at Bocca d'Arno near Marina di Pisa, the property of the Cantiere di costruzioni aeronautiche, broke its moorings and went adrift, and the current carried it close to San Rossore. An officer and a guard, having sighted the motorboat, managed to grab hold of it despite the heavy waves, trying in vain to bring it onto the beach. At that moment the King and the Queen arrived by automobile; they got out of the car and personally helped the two soldiers bring the motorboat ashore, after which some men towed it back to Bocca d'Arno. The King also had the two soldiers get into his own automobile and had them driven to their barracks.
Context
Mussolini's lira revaluation and 'Quota 90'
The "Italian method of revaluation" refers to the campaign to strengthen the lira that Mussolini had launched publicly about two months before this issue. On 18 August 1926, in a speech at Pesaro, he announced the revaluation later known as Quota 90, setting the goal of pegging the lira at 92.46 to the pound sterling. His Finance Minister, Giuseppe Volpi, had preferred a rate of around 120 or 125 to the pound and regarded the target as a drastic overvaluation, while Mussolini had written to Volpi on 8 August that the fate of the regime was tied to the lira. The commentary's praise for iron discipline over rediscounted credit, and its claim that "fabulous sums" were flowing back to the Bank of Italy, belong to this politically driven defence of the currency. The paper gave no figures, and its picture of selfish hoarders compelled to repatriate their capital is the regime's own framing. What is independently established is that the revaluation was accompanied in 1927 by wage cuts in industry and agriculture.
Britain's Emergency Powers Act 1920
Policing of the coal dispute in Britain in 1926 was carried out under emergency regulations made under the Emergency Powers Act 1920. The government used the act extensively during the General Strike, after a state of emergency was proclaimed on 30 April 1926, and the emergency regulations stayed in force long after the general strike itself had ended. The act contained parliamentary checks: regulations had to be laid before Parliament and would expire after seven days unless Parliament decided otherwise, and a proclamation could remain in force for no more than one month. With the miners' resistance continuing for months after the general strike collapsed, the government therefore had to return to the Commons repeatedly to keep the regulations alive. The Italian report places the ban on Cook's meetings in one of these debates.
Why the minister pointed to local police chiefs
The report's statement that the minister left responsibility for meetings, processions and similar demonstrations to the "district chief" matches how the Home Secretary, Sir William Joynson-Hicks, described the regulations in the Commons on 30 August 1926. Moving that regulations made by an Order of 25 August continue in force, he noted that the resolution was the same, apart from the date, as one passed a month earlier. He told MPs that the power was conferred upon the police authorities of a town or county, upon the Chief Constable and not upon himself, and reported that 2,066 people had been prosecuted under the regulations since 1 May. He also acknowledged that Regulations 20, 21 and 33 were contested and that the opposition front bench had tabled amendments to strike out particular regulations. The minister quoted in the Italian report, who left decisions on meetings to local chiefs, describes the same division of responsibility.
Who A. J. Cook was
Arthur James Cook was the trade union leader who served as General Secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain from 1924 until his death in 1931. During the 1926 General Strike he became closely identified with the defiant slogan "Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day." When the Trades Union Congress abandoned the general strike after nine days, Cook went on leading the miners' resistance for several months, though the strike ultimately ended in defeat. By late October the miners were still out, which is why the Italian headline could name Cook alone as the target of the government's ban: his meetings were the public face of the continuing stoppage.
Queen Elena's reputation for hands-on help
The San Rossore story shows the royal couple stepping out of their car to lend a hand, an image that matched the reputation Queen Elena had built over nearly two decades. When an earthquake devastated Messina in December 1908, she helped the rescuers, visited the scene and arranged for the wounded to be taken to a hospital ship, which increased her popularity in Italy. During the First World War she worked as a nurse. Her biography also records that she did not enjoy social life or ceremonial royal duties and preferred a simple, quiet family life. The paper's account of the King having the two soldiers driven to their barracks in his own car fits this portrait of informal, practical royalty; the incident itself rests on the paper's report.
Original
Il metodo italiano della rivalutazione
La politica finanziaria de controllo fino alla ferrea disciplina del de naro riscontato alle industrie, ha costretto molti di cotesti egoisti e insensibili accu mulatori dei propri risparmi all'estero a riportare in Italia il capitale italiano. Non si svela nessun segreto, e per conto nostro vorremmo anzi che [?] pubblicato un bollettino giornaliero di questo stato di normalizzazione finanziaria del Paese, dicendo che in questi ultimi tempi (ed anche in questi ultimi giorni) la Banca d'Italia vede ritornare somme favolose (ed anche su nominativi insospettati) che riprendono il posto regolare e la loro normale funzione nell'economia italiana.
Il Governo proibisce i comizi di Cook
iati dai vari agitatori. Il ministro che in considerazione di ciò aveva opportuno di lasciare al capo di stretto la responsabilità di conceno, comizi, cortei o altre manifedel genere. role del ministro vennero [?] da applausi da parte della maggioranante la discussione, il ministro delle, Lane Fox, dichiarò di aver avuto discussioni coi compratori all'incon le agenzie di rivendta del carer studiare i [?] atti a are i prezzi del mercato carbonier ora verrà emessa periodicamente bella dei prezzi ufficialmente praul mercato, per impedire le speculadanno dei consumatori. George pronunciò
Il Re e la Regna prestano soccorso
Giunge notizia da San Rossore, che urante l'imperversare della violenta urrasca di due giorni fa, un motoscafo rmeggiato a Bocca d'Arno presso Maina di Pisa, di proprietà del Cantiere i costruzioni aeronautiche, rotti gli oreggi andava alla deriva e la corrente o trasportava nelle vicinanze di San ossore. Un ufficiale e una guardia avistato il motoscafo riuscirono ad afferarlo nonostante le forti onde, tentando vano di trasportarlo sulla spiaggia. n quel momento sopraggiungevano in utomobile il Re e la Regina, i quali cendevano dalla vettura e personalmene aiutarono i due militari a portare a secca il motoscafo, che da alcuni eniva rimorchiato fino a Bocca d'Arno. noltre il Re faceva salire sulla propria utomobile i due militari e li faceva rasportare nella loro caserma.
Source: Source: Internet Archive