L’Écho d’Alger
- A TALE OF SHIPS
- The Attempt on Mr. Mussolini's Life
- A Disabled Man's Carelessness
L'Écho d'Alger's front page of 3 November 1926 led with an editorial on a proposed sinking fund for the state-built steamers that shipping companies ran under lease between France and Algeria. The paper said the Algerian assemblies were being asked to vote 2.5 million francs a year towards replacing the eight "Gouverneurs généraux" liners then in service. A Rome dispatch on the Bologna attempt on Mussolini reported demonstrations in his honor across Italy and several thousand congratulatory telegrams, including ones from Poincaré, Austen Chamberlain, Briand and the Italian royal family. A short, partly illegible Paris item told of a one-legged night watchman whose wooden leg caught fire while he lay at a work site, leaving him badly burned on the thigh.
Translation
A TALE OF SHIPS
The Financial Delegations are once again to take up the plan for a sinking fund for the steamers built by the State and leased to the shipping companies that operate the sea links across the Mediterranean between France and Algeria. The Algerian Assemblies are being asked to vote an annual appropriation of two million five hundred thousand francs as the Algerian budget's contribution to the running of this fund. To amortize means to create an autonomous capital fund so that the eight "Gouverneurs généraux" now in service can be replaced.
The Attempt on Mr. Mussolini's Life
Rome, November 2. – Demonstrations in honor of Mr. Mussolini have taken place throughout Italy. Several thousand telegrams of congratulation have been sent to the Duce, notably by Mr. Poincaré, Sir Austen Chamberlain, Mr. Briand and by all the members of the Italian royal family.
A Disabled Man's Carelessness
Paris, November 2. – A one-legged [?] man, M. Le Mahou, aged 56 [?], night watchman at a work site in [?]ly, had lain down near a br[?]. Suddenly he was roused from his torpor [?] by a sharp pain: his wooden leg had caught fire and the flames [?] the stump. Without losing his composure, the unfortunate man [?] to smother the fire and called for help [?]. Seriously burned on the thigh, he was taken to the Cha[?] hospital.
Context
The 'Gouverneur général' liners on the Algeria run
The editorial's "Gouverneurs généraux" were passenger ships named after governors-general of Algeria. According to the French Wikipedia entry on the Gouverneur général Chanzy, that ship was one of four sister liners built in 1922 or 1923, the others including the Gouverneur général Grévy. Its name came from Alfred Chanzy, governor of Algeria from 1873 to 1879, and it was put into service for crossings to North Africa. So in November 1926 these ships were only three or four years old, and the paper was arguing about a fund for the eventual replacement of a young fleet. The claims that the ships were built by the State, leased to the companies and partly paid for out of the Algerian budget come from the paper itself. The available reference lists only four ships of this class, so it does not identify the rest of the eight the paper counted, nor does it say whether the Assemblies voted the 2.5 million francs. The Chanzy itself stayed in use far longer than a replacement plan might suggest: its last crossing left Algiers on 28 December 1962.
The Bologna attempt of 31 October 1926
The Rome dispatch refers to the attempt of 31 October 1926 in Bologna, when a shot was fired at Mussolini as he rode through the city in an open car; the 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni was lynched on the spot. It was the third attack on Mussolini that year: on 7 April Violet Gibson had fired a pistol that grazed his nose, and on 11 September the anarchist marble worker Gino Lucetti had thrown a bomb at his car at Porta Pia in Rome. Who actually fired in Bologna is still disputed. The terrorism specialist J. Bowyer Bell judged the boy probably innocent and the affair either a put-up job or a plot among Fascists. Writing for the centenary in La Civiltà Cattolica, the Jesuit historian Giovanni Sale says the course of events remains shrouded in mystery. He notes talk of police provocation or a plot by government circles hostile to Mussolini's policy, and that the Bologna party boss Leandro Arpinati and Roberto Farinacci have been named as possible instigators. The dispatch printed in Algiers raises none of these doubts and treats the event simply as an attempt on Mussolini.
Congratulations from abroad and mobilization at home
The dispatch lists Poincaré, Sir Austen Chamberlain, Briand and the whole Italian royal family among the senders of several thousand telegrams; that figure is the paper's and cannot be checked from the available material. Chamberlain's message came from a statesman who had recently dealt with Mussolini in person: the ANPI chronology records that Mussolini met the British foreign secretary at Livorno on 30 September 1926, a month before Bologna. Inside Italy the outpouring was broader still. Giovanni Sale writes that many bishops sent Mussolini congratulatory telegrams promising prayers and support, and that a Te Deum of thanksgiving for the Duce's life was sung in many Italian cathedrals. In his account, Fascist propaganda skilfully exploited the attempt, which deeply shook national opinion and strengthened Mussolini's personal prestige among Italians. The demonstrations and telegrams the paper reported belong to that campaign of public support.
The repression that followed the attempt
While the Rome dispatch spoke only of celebrations, a crackdown on the opposition was already under way. The ANPI chronology records that after 31 October Benedetto Croce's house in Naples was attacked and prefects suspended numerous opposition newspapers throughout Italy. On 5 November the Council of Ministers decided on the immediate dissolution of anti-fascist parties and associations, the suppression of all opposition newspapers and police internment (confino) for political dissidents. According to Istoreco, law no. 1848 of 6 November 1926 extended confino and the formal police warning, previously reserved for ordinary crimes, to political opponents. The law "for the defence of the State", in force from 25 November, created the Special Tribunal and set severe penalties, including death, for activity against Fascism. The English Wikipedia account also links the Bologna attempt to the laws that created Mussolini's secret police. Within weeks of the telegrams the paper reported, the regime had used the attempt to abolish legal opposition.
Original
HISTOIRE DE BATEAUX
Les Délégations financières vont être saisies à nouveau du projet de la caisse d'amortissement des paquebots construits par l'Etat et affermés aux compagnies de navigation qui assurent les relations maritimes, dans la Méditerranée, entre là France et l'Algérie. Les Assemblées algériennes sont invitées à voter un crédit annuel de deux millions cinq cent mille francs, à titre de participation du budget de l'Algérie au fonctionnement de cette caisse. Amortir, cela veut dire créer un fonds de capitalisation autonome pour permettre le remplacement des huit «Gouverneurs généraux» actuellement en service.
L'attentat contre M. Mussolini
Rome, 2 novembre. - Dans toute l'Italie ont eu lieu des manifestations en l'honneur de M. Mussolini. Plusieurs milliers de dépêches de félicitations ont été envoyées au Duce, notamment par M. Poincaré, sir Austen Chamberlain, M. Briand et par tous les membres de la famille royale italienne.
L'imprudence d'un infirme
Paris, 2 novembre. - Un unij [?] te, M. Le Mahou, âgé de 56 ans [?] dien de nuit dans un chantier à [?] ly s'était couché près d'un br [?] Soudain il fut tiré de sa torpeu [?] une vive douleur, sa jambe de bois avait pris feu et les flammes [?] raient le moignon. Sans perdre son sang-froid, le malheureux par [?] étouffer le feu et appela au seco [?] Grièvement brûlé à la cuisse, il a été transporté à l'hôpital de la Cha [?]