ITALY'S PEOPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 23

ITALY'S PEOPLE

ABHOR THE GERMANS

TURNING TOWARDS BRITAIN

v ANTI-SEMITIC MOVE

In one of the cities of Central Italy lives a group of writers, painters, and musicians who find much to complain of in the conditions of work under the regime, writes an Italian correspondent | •of the "Manchester Guardian." They j are not the only people with a grievance, but unlike the peasants, the other great class on whom Fascism bears hardest, they are at least articulate, at any rate in the drawing-rooms of their .friends; and during a month which I spent amongst them I tried to discover what they disliked in the regime, what sort of Government they wished to see in its place, and what (if anything) they were prepared to do about it. They expressed themselves on their discontents with, great frankness and some wit. Most topical of their hates is the antiJewish campaign, which has gained momentum during recent weeks under the incredulous and horrified eyes of the Italian public. No one can understand it, for it is quite artificial. There is no Jewish problem in Italy. Except in Trieste, there are no big Jewish financial interests, and the 47,000 Jews in the country have always counted themselves and been counted Italians. ASSIMILATION EASY. Their assimilation has been easier in Italy than elsewhere, not because their numbers were few, but because they resemble the Italians in appearance and character—sensitive, artistic, unwarlike, and shrewd —and because the Italians, who exalt intelligence above every human faculty, have welcomed them and sought them out without jealousy, not feeling themselves at any disadvantage in cunning or precocity. In fact, so closely have they been identified that few Italians can recognise a Jew at sight, and fewer still, until a week or two ago, remembered, if they ever knew, that Manin was a Jew. What, however, most irritates the Italians .in the present anti-Jewish measures is the betrayal of their principle of citizenship. Racialism means nothing in Italy, for centuries the melt-ing-pot of Mediterranean peoples, and the Government's, call to protect the so-called putoty of the race is so much humbug which would make the Italians smile if it did not sting them to tears. "What, then, of the Etruscans?" they ask. "Who were they if not Semites? And what of the Arab strain in Sicily and Naples?" The fact is that the ethnic principle is not important td Italians and never has been so since Roman times. 'Tajjl was a Roman citizen, and any man of intelligence and culture is my brother," a young Italian journalist said to me; and I have heard vthe same thing from many Italian lips this summer. THE ROMAN HERITAGE. This indifference to race, this fraternity of the intellect, is the most truly Roman part of the Italian heritage. This is the feeling which found expression in the demand for Dalrnatia on grounds of cultural rather than of ethnic unity. It is possible to judge by other standards, but there is grandeur in the conception, and some historic justification, for the Italian genius, like the Jewish, is not narrowly patriotic. The attack on the Jews has wounded the Italians in their intellectual pride, but as an invitation to sadism it is already bearing fruit. There is—there was—no Jewish- problem in Italy, but there soon will be; the suicides are already beginning. The great question ' which Italians are now anxiously propounding is whether the opposition of the Church will come in time to save the Jews. Will !Mussolini push his proGermanism, to the point of sacrificing the Concordat to the Axis, or will the Church give in? So far its attitude has been more doctrinaire than humanitarian, but since it now appears that their religion is to be no protection to the Catholic Jews the Church may be forced to take a clearer line. DISLIKE OF GERMANY. If the Jewish policy is hated in Italy, the German programme is > abhorred, and here it is not only the intellectuals who are revolted, but the entire nation. The "passo Romano," the German goose-step, which the Italians say has been given them in exchange for the Passo del Brenner, is a daily parade of the Government's indifference to public feeling. Since the Anschluss the Italians find the Axis incomprehensible, and, like the frogs in the fable, are now sighing for the happy days before" sanctions, when Italy was friends with England. The German policy, and particularly the Jewish persecutions, hajs brought home I the humiliation of living under, a regime which admits neither criticism 'nor the obligation to defend its measures. As yet this feeling does not seem to have affected the curious kind of personal loyalty which Mussolini inspires. His entourage is almost universally hated, his policy is feared and disliked, but he himself is still adored and continues to fascinate even his severest critics. He is followed without confidence, but this does not seem to matter, for he led the Italians without confidence into Abyssinia, and they have long since lost confidence in the Spanish adventure. ATTITUDE TO BREAD. Another feeling, almost as sacred to Italians as their Roman conception of citizenship, is their attitude to their bread, so important in this starchnourished country. Over this feeling the Government is riding rough-shod. The bread of the poor is being adulterated with maize so that reserves of wheat may be held up in case of war, but white bread is being baked for the rich. The distinction is more unpopular than the • adulteration, and [ has given rise to a bon mot. "At last an Opposition paper has appeared." they say, "the 'Daily Bread.'" Others call the new bread "panital" in parody of "lanital," their synthetic wool. But the men who came to talk with my host on summer evenings wer© artists first, and politicians only because politics have entered,, every phase of Italian life. What they most lamented under the regime was the impossibility of' preserving any sort of artistic integrity. Most of them had jobs, for it was impossible to live on their writing. (Incidentally the pressure put on young Italians to marry is not a demographic measure but a safeguard, for it is found that men with family responsibilities needing to earn a living make poor anti-Fascist material.) It is hardest, of course, for the writers. Their literary integrity is insulted every summer by the Viareggio Prize, which, like the awards of the Royal Academy in this country, is both sought and despised. But the painters of any originality cannot show their work, the architects can do nothing of interest, for every public building must incorporate a fascio in the facade, and the musicians have no heart to play.

The censorship is maddening. Everything has to be sent to the local prefecture, where the personnel, half-edu-cated and insolent, is always changing. The appeal is to the Ministry of Culture, more political-minded even than the local censors.