Le Petit Matin
- The Barbarism of Gold
- Was Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi Playing a Double Role?
- Financial Draws
This front page of Le Petit Matin for 6 November 1926 is read through three pieces. A signed column by Paul MXY. warned that the 'golden age' being promised would in fact be a 'barbarism of gold', in which a tiny minority holding the metal would impose the harshest slavery on the peoples. A news report asked whether Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi, grandson of the Italian hero, had been playing a double game: it said the Sûreté had been tipped off by an official Italian source about one Fernando Scivoli, allegedly planning to kill Mussolini, who had gone to Garibaldi's villa in Nice and been introduced by the colonel to republicans as a man on a secret mission. A financial notice listed the winning numbers in a draw of the Foncier 1879 bonds, with top prizes of 100,000 francs.
Translation
The Barbarism of Gold
This phrase has been written. People have spoken of a new era, of an 'age', as they say in prehistory, in which the accursed metal would be king. The golden age, then, would not be paradisiacal at all, and the evocation of a Vale of Tempe, or of the Edens of the sixteenth-century Dutch painters, would be nothing but a lure. The golden age we are promised would be the barbarism of gold. The tiny minority holding this metal would impose upon the peoples the harshest of slaveries.
Was Colonel Ricciotti Garibaldi Playing a Double Role?
Around 20 October the Sûreté learned from an official Italian source that one Fernando Scivoli was planning to return to Italy to kill Mr. Mussolini; Scivoli arrived in Nice from Paris on 17 October and went to Garibaldi's villa. The colonel introduced Scivoli in republican circles as a man entrusted with a very important confidential mission.
Financial Draws
Foncier 1879 bonds. – Nos. 1,387,136 and 76,985 each win 100,000 francs; No. 251,237 wins 25,000 francs; Nos. 363,680 and 1,663,443 each win 10,000 francs; the following 5 numbers each win 5,000 francs: 428,177, 1,390,376, 1,286,030, 543,171, 1,267,257; 90 other numbers are each repaid at 1,000 francs.
Context
Ricciotti Garibaldi Jr. under suspicion as Mussolini's agent
The paper framed its suspicion as a question and tied it to a specific episode: an official Italian tip to the Sûreté about Fernando Scivoli, a would-be assassin of Mussolini who, the paper says, went to Garibaldi's villa in Nice and was presented by the colonel to republican exiles as a man on a secret mission. Within days TIME reported that French police had found documents that appeared to brand the grandson of the Risorgimento hero an agent provocateur employed by the Italian secret service. TIME also printed a dramatic exchange in which Garibaldi told his brother Sante that he had taken 'Fascist gold' but had not betrayed the cause. Later reference works are more categorical. The Catalan encyclopedia calls him a secret agent of Mussolini's government who denounced the conspiracy to the French police, and the Wikipedia account of the plot describes him as a double agent serving the political police rather than a genuine anti-fascist fighter. The Scivoli story is the paper's own report; the historical case against Garibaldi rests mainly on his role in the Catalan plot.
The Prats-de-Mollo plot that exposed Garibaldi
Garibaldi was unmasked through the so-called Prats-de-Mollo plot. Francesc Macià, leader of the separatist Estat Català, had taken refuge in Perpignan right after Primo de Rivera's coup in 1923. He planned to send two columns across the Pyrenees, one from Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans and one from the Coll d'Ares, to occupy Olot and proclaim a Catalan Republic. Because few Catalans had military training, Macià recruited exiled Italian anti-fascists who had fought in the war, and this is how Garibaldi entered the scheme. The French police were forewarned. They arrested most of the participants near the border, 111 according to one account, and seized Macià on 4 November, two days before this issue, at the country house he was using. TIME added that Spain, allegedly warned by Mussolini, held troops ready to meet the invaders had they crossed. Early reporting was inflated: TIME cast Garibaldi as the leader who had put 400 armed men in the field, far more than the number later recorded as detained.
How the affair fed Franco-Italian tension
The Garibaldi revelations landed in the middle of a quarrel between republican France and Fascist Italy. According to TIME, semi-official Paris newspapers accused Mussolini of having deliberately caused his agents to egg on a plot that might have embroiled France and Spain. The same week, Fascist mobs attacked the French consulates at Tripoli and Benghazi in Italian Tripolitania, and the French press saw Mussolini's hand there as well. The paper's question about Garibaldi's 'double role', with its detail that the Sûreté was receiving information from an official Italian source, appeared at this moment, when French opinion suspected Rome of both informing on and stirring up the exile plots it denounced.
What became of the conspirators
Garibaldi was tried in Paris alongside the conspirators. Eighteen men were brought to trial, sixteen Catalans and two Italians, Arturo Rizzoli and Garibaldi himself, in proceedings that began on 21 January 1927. The rank-and-file volunteers were simply expelled from France. For the leaders, the penalties came down to expulsion and fines, and Macià was sentenced to two months in prison and a fine of 100 francs.
How prize-bearing bonds like the Foncier 1879 issue worked
Lottery bonds were numbered securities in which some randomly selected bonds were redeemed at more than face value. The issuer held drawings on a schedule to decide which serial numbers would be redeemed. The Foncier 1879 draw printed on this page follows that pattern: a handful of numbers won 100,000, 25,000, 10,000 or 5,000 francs, while 90 others were simply repaid at 1,000 francs each. Issuers usually turned to the device when investor zeal was low, because the element of chance attracted buyers willing to accept a lower guaranteed return in the hope of a windfall. Printing the winning numbers in a daily paper let holders check whether their bonds had come up.
Original
La Barbarie de l'Or
On a écrit ce mot. On a parlé d'une ère nouvelle, d'un «âge», comme on dit en préhistoire; où le métal maudit serait roi. L'âge d'or ne serait donc pas du tout paradisiaque et l'évocation d'une vallée de Tempé, ou des édens des peintres hollandais du seizième siècle, ne serait qu'un leurre. L'âge d'or qu'on nous promet serait la barbarie de l'or. La minorité infime détentrice de ce métal ferait peser sur les peuples le plus dur des esclavages.
Le colonel Riccioti Garibaldi jouait-il un rôle double ?
Aux environs du 20 octobre la sûreté apprit de source italienne officielle que le nommé Fernando Scivoli projetait de rentrer en Italie pour tuer M. Mussolini; Scivoli arriva à Nice de Paris le 17 octobre et se rendit à la villa de Garibaldi. Le colonel présenta Scivoli dans les milieux républicains comme chargé d'une mission confidentielle très importante.
Tirages financiers
Foncières 1879. - Les numéros 1. 387. 136 et 76. 985 gagnent chacun 100. 000 francs; le numéro 251. 237 gagne 25. 000 francs; les numéros 363. 680 et 1. 663. 443 gagnent chacun 10. 000 francs; les 5 numéros suivants gagnent chacun 5. 000 francs: 428. 177, 1. 390. 376, 1. 286. 030, 543. 171. 1. 267. 257; 90 autres numéros sont remboursés chacun à 1. 000 francs.