Il Piccolo
- Angora hesitates to commit itself to Moscow and limits the scope of the Odessa negotiations
- Ricciotti Garibaldi and Colonel Macia arrested
- A speech by De Stefani
This front page of Il Piccolo carried a London report, which the paper itself flagged as doubtful, that Turkey's Angora government, alarmed as the pound rose from 900 to 970 piastres between mid-September and late October, might shore up its currency by ceding state monopolies to foreign powers, with Italy first in line; it ran under a headline about Turkish caution towards Moscow in the Odessa talks. From Paris the paper reported that Ricciotti Garibaldi and Colonel Macià had been arrested over the Catalan plot and sent to the Santé prison, a turn it found surprising after semi-official hints that Garibaldi would merely be escorted to the frontier. A third item described the opening of the 1926-1927 academic year, where the rector and deans, De Stefani among them, entered flanked by fascist student and university militia formations bearing pennants.
Translation
Angora hesitates to commit itself to Moscow and limits the scope of the Odessa negotiations
A dispatch from London, which must be reported with great reserve, raises the possibility of a financial intervention in Turkey. The country's financial conditions are causing grave concern to the Angora Government. The pound sterling, which in mid-September was worth 900 piastres, had risen by the end of October to 970. Various measures taken by the Government to control the trade in foreign currencies and to hinder financial operations that might damage the Turkish currency have not achieved that aim, because the stock exchanges remain skeptical about the future of Ottoman finance. According to the said dispatch, the Turkish Government has now reportedly resolved to support the value of the piastre by ceding certain monopolies to foreign States, with preference given to Italy.
Ricciotti Garibaldi and Colonel Macia arrested
Ricciotti Garibaldi was declared under arrest today on the charge of having taken part in the Catalan plot, and at the same time Colonel Macia, who had just arrived from Perpignan, was declared under arrest. After a brief examination before the investigating magistrates, both were taken to the Santé prison. Whereas the other evening it was announced from a most semi-official source that Garibaldi would simply be the object of an administrative measure and escorted to the frontier, today his fate was decided in the opposite sense, and the sudden turn in the affair cannot fail to arouse some surprise.
A speech by De Stefani
Today the academic year 1926-1927 was solemnly inaugurated in the great hall of the University. The ceremony took place at 10, when, greeted by thunderous applause, the Academic Senate entered, composed of the Magnificent Rector Prof. Del Vecchio and the deans of the individual faculties, Professors De Stefani, De Francisci, Parravano, Milossevich and Della Vedova. All wear the traditional academic dress: the gown for the deans, the gown and the ermine cape for the rector. Flanking the Senate are a maniple of the university centuria and a maniple of the fascist student group with their respective pennants, who then go to line up on both sides of the seats reserved for the Academic Senate.
Context
The Prats de Molló plot behind the Paris arrests
The arrests reported from Paris grew out of what is known as the Prats de Molló plot, an attempted military invasion of Catalonia from France to achieve its independence, planned by Francesc Macià. The paper's title for him, Colonel Macia, reflects his career: the idea for the invasion seems to have come from Macià himself, who had been a colonel in the Spanish Army. The operation failed because the French police were on notice, apparently through a leak from Garibaldi's group, and Macià was arrested on 4 November in the country house he was occupying. The report of 14 November describes a later step, in which Macià, newly arrived from Perpignan according to the paper, and Garibaldi were formally placed under arrest after questioning by investigating magistrates and taken to the Santé prison.
Garibaldi's double role and the 1927 trial
Later accounts cast Garibaldi in a very different light from the one in which the paper presented him. Ricciotti Garibaldi Jr, grandson of the hero of Italian unification, is described in the history of the plot not as a genuine anti-fascist fighter but as a double agent, and Macià's biography calls him a spy of Fascist Italy whose help allowed the French to abort the plot. The excerpt itself presents him only as a man accused of joining the Catalan conspiracy. He was nevertheless among those tried in Paris, where the two Italian defendants were Arturo Rizzoli and Garibaldi. The trial began on 21 January 1927, and Macià used it to read a long statement on behalf of the accused; he was convicted and sentenced to two months in jail and a fine of 100 francs.
Tevfik Rüştü and the Odessa talks
The Odessa negotiations in the headline most likely correspond to the 1926 visit to Odessa by Turkey's foreign minister Tevfik Rüştü, later known as Aras, who was then serving in İsmet İnönü's third government. His biography lists three visits to the Soviet Union: Odessa in 1926, then Moscow in 1936 and 1937. It describes him as carrying out Atatürk's foreign policy of good relations with neighbouring countries and opposition to hegemonic powers, a stance that fits the paper's picture of Angora talking with Moscow while hesitating to bind itself. The text printed beneath the headline moves to Turkish finances and rests on a single London dispatch that the paper itself said should be reported with great reserve. The pound's rise from 900 to 970 piastres and the reported plan to cede monopolies with preference to Italy therefore remain the paper's report of that dispatch, not an established outcome.
Alberto de' Stefani, from finance minister to dean
The dean named De Stefani, whose speech gave the report its headline, is very probably Alberto de' Stefani, the economist who was in charge of Italian economics from 1922 to 1925 and who also held a professorship at the Sapienza University of Rome. By mid-1925 the economy was heading towards crisis and Mussolini dismissed him, replacing him with Giuseppe Volpi, a corporatist. He kept his place in the regime all the same, remaining a member of the Grand Council of Fascism until the collapse of Mussolini's regime. Little more than a year after his dismissal, the paper shows him entering the great hall as a faculty dean, gowned among the academic senate and flanked by fascist student formations.
Fascist students at the academic ceremony
The escort described in the report shows party formations already built into university ritual in late 1926. The Fascist University Groups (GUF), the student branch of the National Fascist Party, had been founded in 1920 and were restructured in 1927, eventually bringing together Italian students who were obliged to enroll. Their purpose was to educate the future ruling class following the doctrine of Mussolini's regime. The 1927 restructuring came, in the source's words, after the totalitarianization of the state, so the fascist student group in this report belongs to the phase just before that reorganisation. The paper places a maniple of that group and a maniple of what it calls the university centuria, each with pennants, beside the academic senate, and has them line up on both sides of the senate's seats while the deans wear gowns and the rector a gown and ermine cape.
Original
Angora esita ad impegnarsi con Mosca e limita il campo dei negoziati di Odessa
Un dispaccio da Londra, che va segnalato con molta riserva, prospetta la possibilità di un intervento finanziario in Turchia. Le condizioni finanziarie del paese causano gravi preoccupazioni al Governo di Angora. La sterlina, che a metà settembre valeva 900 piastre, saliva alla fine di ottobre a 970. Diverse misure prese dal Governo per il controllo del commercio delle divise e per ostacolare le operazioni finanziarie che possano danneggiare la valuta turca, non hanno raggiunto tale scopo, poichè le Borse restano scettiche circa l'avvenire della finanza ottomana. Il Governo turco sarebbe ora venuto nella determinazione, secondo il suddetto dispaccio, di sostenere il valore della piastra, cedendo a Stati stranieri alcuni monopoli, con preferenza all'Italia.
Ricciotti Garibaldi e il colonnello Macia arrestati
Ricciotti Garibaldi è stato dichiarato oggi in arresto, sotto l'accusa di aver preso parte al complotto catalano, e nello stesso tempo è stato dichiarato in arresto il colonnello Macia, che era appena giunto da Perpignano. Entrambi, dopo un breve interrogatorio innanzi ai giudici istruttori, sono stati trasportati nella prigione della Santé. Mentre l'altra sera si annunciava da fonte ufficiosissima che Garibaldi sarebbe stato oggetto semplicemente di una misura amministrativa e condotto alla frontiera, oggi la sua sorte è stata decisa in senso opposto, e la svolta improvvisa della faccenda non può non destare qualche sorpresa.
Un discorso di De Stefani
Oggi è stato solennemente inaugurato nell'aula magna dell'Università l'anno accade mico 1926-1927. La cerimonia ha avuto luogo alle 10, allorchè salutato da uno scrosciante applauso è entrato il Senato accademico composto dal magnifico rettore prof. Del Vecchio e dai presidi delle singole facoltà professori De Stefani, De Francisci, Parravano, Milossevich e Della Vedova. Tutti indossano il tradizionale abito accademico: la toga per i presidi, la toga e la cappa d'ermellino pel rettore. Fanno ala al Senato un manipolo della centuria universitaria e un manipolo del gruppo studenti fascisti con i rispettivi gagliardetti, i quali vanno quindi a schierarsi ai due lati dei seggi destinati al Senato accademico.
Source: Source: Internet Archive