Il Piccolo
- The March of the Nation
- Italo-French Negotiations over Syria?
- The Hon. Federzoni and Ciano
Trieste's Il Piccolo marked the anniversary of the March on Rome with a lead editorial praising the 'new Italy': a nation raised to unprecedented prestige abroad, a whole people united behind its Prime Minister, overseas lands pacified, and a fated role in the Mediterranean and in Europe. A Paris dispatch reported, in cautious conditional language, that ambassador Avezzana's talk with Briand had dealt with Italian colonial ambitions, possibly touching Syria, and that France wanted better relations with Rome without putting its North African holdings up for discussion. A third item relayed Interior Ministry statistics showing taverns and wine shops falling from 146,768 in 1915 to 106,414 in 1925.
Translation
The March of the Nation
symbol, the Nation as the ideal synthesis and variety of productive forces; Italy's reputation in the world raised to heights never reached before; the whole people at one with its Prime Minister and sharing in his passion. Not only that: it has seen our overseas lands pacified through the virtue of men and the wisdom of Government, and this new Italy made worthy of stern attention and cordial deference, an object of envy for its luxuriant youth, of imitation in the most characteristic forms of its new life, and of understanding for what are and may be the possibilities and the necessities of its tomorrow, the essential, and therefore fateful, reasons for its affirmation in the civilization of the Mediterranean peoples and in the history of the European continent.
Italo-French Negotiations over Syria?
The dispatches arriving from Paris attach great importance to the talk between the Italian ambassador Avezzana and Briand. It is noted that the French ambassador in Rome recently had a long meeting with the Hon. Mussolini. In the Avezzana–Briand talk, it is said, there was long discussion of the colonial questions that have for some time been the main subject occupying Franco-Italian diplomacy. A solution to the problem of Italian colonial designs is reportedly being sought. France would be seeking to improve relations with Italy by meeting its wish, without the North African possessions coming into discussion.
The Hon. Federzoni and Ciano
of the Interior provided very interesting statistics on the work done to combat every kind of social ill. Thus the taverns and wine shops, which on the first of January 1915 numbered 146,768 in Italy, had been reduced by 1925 to 106,414
Context
The fourth anniversary of the March on Rome
This issue is dated 28 October 1926, four years to the day after Fascist demonstrators and Blackshirt paramilitaries began converging on Rome on 28 October 1922. The editorial's title, though cut off, evidently plays on that 'march', and its list of achievements (unprecedented prestige abroad, a whole people 'at one with its Prime Minister', pacified overseas lands) is anniversary celebration rather than reporting. Historians tell the story more soberly. On 30 October 1922 the King appointed Mussolini prime minister, so power passed to the Fascists without armed conflict, and current historical accounts stress that the March was not the seizure of power that Fascism later celebrated. The paper's tone also reflects where it stood. Il Piccolo had been founded by right-wing pro-Italian nationalists, and in 1923, after Fascist rule began, it declared its adherence to Fascist ideology. The national unanimity the editorial describes is therefore the claim of a regime-aligned newspaper, not a measure of public opinion.
Why Syria was on the Franco-Italian agenda in 1926
The Paris dispatch is speculative throughout. Its key verbs are conditional ('it is said', 'France would be seeking'), and it never states what Italy actually wanted in Syria. The setting, however, is well established. Under the post-war settlement the newly formed League of Nations gave France control of Syria, while Britain took Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq. By 1926 the French mandate was under heavy pressure from the Great Syrian Revolt, a general uprising that ran from 1925 to 1927. France had raised its troop strength there to about 50,000 by early 1926, and in September 1926, after an earlier uprising in Hama, a full-fledged insurrection broke out in that region, only weeks before this report. A France tied down in Syria had good reason to seek better relations with Rome. That fits the logic the dispatch attributes to Paris: meeting Italian colonial wishes somewhere while keeping French North Africa off the table. The report itself offers no evidence that Syria was formally negotiated.
Federzoni, Ciano and the Interior Ministry's tavern statistics
Judging by the headline, the official presenting the tavern figures was Luigi Federzoni, one of the founders of the Nationalist movement that later merged into Fascism, whom Mussolini appointed minister of the interior for 1924 to 1926. The Ciano of the headline is most likely Costanzo Ciano, who had led the Livorno fascio and taken part in the March on Rome in October 1922. By the article's own numbers, taverns and wine shops fell by about 40,000, roughly 27 percent, between 1 January 1915 and 1925. Most of that decade, however, covers the First World War and the governments before Fascism, and Federzoni's tenure at the Interior began only in 1924. Presenting a ten-year decline as the result of a campaign against 'social ills' therefore works as government publicity. The passage does not say how the closures were achieved.
Original
La marcia della Naz
simbolo la Nazione quale sintesi ideale e varietà di forze produttive, sollevata ad altezze non mai prima raggiunte la reputazione italiana nel mondo, concorde il popolo tutto col suo Primo Ministro e partecipe della sua passione. Non solo, ma ha visto pacificate, per virtù d'uomini e saggezza di Governo, le nostre terre d'oltremare, resa, questa nuova Italia, degna d'attenzione severa e di cordiale deferenza, oggetto d'invidia per la sua giovinezza rigogliosa, d'imitazione nelle forme più caratteristiche della sua nuova vita, di comprensione per quelle che sono e possono essere le possibilità e le necessità del suo domani, le ragioni essenziali, e però fatali, della sua affermazione nella civiltà delle genti mediterranee e nella storia del continente europeo.
Negoziati italo-francesi per la Siria?
Le corrispondenze che giungono da Parigi danno grande importanza al colloquio dell'ambasciatore italiano Avezzana con Briand. Viene rilevato che l'ambasciatore francese a Roma ha avuto di recente un lungo abboccamento con l'ou. Mussolini. Nel colloquio Avezzana-Briand si sarebbe parlato a lungo delle questioni coloniali che da tempo sono il principale argomento che occupa la diplomazia franco-italiana. Si vorrebbe trovare una soluzione al problema dei disegni coloniali italiani. La Francia cercherebbe di migliorare le relazioni con l'Italia, aderendo al suo desiderio senza che i possedimenti del Nord-Africa entrino in discussione.
Gli on. Federzoni e Ciano
dell'Interno ha fornito dati statistici molto interessanti sul lavoro compiuto per combattere ogni sorta di male sociale. Così le osterie e le bettole che al primo gennaio 1915 ascendevano in Italia a 146. 768, erano ridotte nel 1925 a 106. 414
Source: Source: Internet Archive