THE FASCIST REGIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 25, 31 January 1928, Page 6

THE FASCIST REGIME.

UNEMPLOYMENT AND TYRAHjy

(To the Editor.)

Optimism is a verv necessary success, but Mr. Tano Fama is surely h able in thinking that any person S**' elementary idea of the value of take as reliable statistic the u£?£*| figures of the Fascist journal "T« V**® 0 * If Mr Tano F.a.a will' look last letter he mil find ,hat I Mv t Lf number of unemployed in Italy f»r T 200,000." This figure is that of a sympathiser and I believe it to bo conservative estimate I have seen ii m that there are 50,000 unemployed in tw! alone, but as I indicated previously ft!- J!? cult to obtain reliable statistics. thinking is at a discount in Fascist ItaW a Professor Eilery, "Current History" asLtf* says: "People suspected of opposition ormS of lukewarm attachment to Fascism are upon and even private conversation is daW/ cus." \our correspondent states papers that mocked Christianity or talwU national treason were suppressed." T?. trouble is that "national treason" was aJ■ defined as any opinion differing from fW 5 the Fascist oligarchy. X 0 independent mLS now exist in Italy They have all beenT? pressed and their editors imprisoned, bani3 or forced by terrorism to flee the cS* !No sane person would accuse the Anekhuri "Star" of being revolutionary, yet such a in Italy would be suppressed. Fran»»[ Cianea, former editor of the Liberal newsMw* II Mondo, was condemned to five banishment to the Isle of Campednsah, being mildly critical of Mussolinism f«! "Current History" of March, 1927). But whfe it is difficult, it is not impossible to obtain! true idea of Italy s economic position. ThusOn the thirteen business days from April lft to May 4 inclusive there were 689 failnrM according to "II Sole," organ of the Chamber of Commerce. This was neither tfe beginning nor the end of the trouble and we can hardly suppose that the unemployed thro created were absorbed into other employment, for the whole cause of the conditions which led to the revaluation of the lira was, according to the Fascist Minister of Industries, too nmi production. As for the revaluation of the lira, the only gainers were the (chiefly foreign) bankers. With regard to your statement that Fascism "saved" Italy from working class control of industry, I would like to point out that it is a matter of opinion as to whether Fascism thereby conferred a boon upon humanity. But if*he will read Professor Salvemini's article "Fascist Finance'' in "Foreign Affairs" of December, 1927, he will find statistics which go to show that production in 1922, far from being "paralysed by Bolshevism," was steadily recovering from the evil effects of war conditions. The geneial situation was improving and the Budget defidt was being wiped out at the time of the Fascist coup d'etat. The Budget surplus of 1926, to which Mr. Tano Fama refers, he exposes as • revolting piece of financial jugglery. Aiuj M one could proceed indefinitely to demolish the pro-Fascist arguments. S. W. SCOTT.