THE RIOTS IN ITALY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2317, 28 July 1898, Page 28

THE RIOTS IN ITALY.

FIGHTING IN THE STREETS. The London correspcndexit of the Argus writes utulsr date May 13 :—: — There has been a suMpd outburst of riotimg ia variou* parts ot lUly, which, for three or four days, threatened to shako the kingdom to its foundation. Naples, Leghorn, Ccmo, Mtu za, Flrreuce, Turin, Milan, distant Messina, and half a dczea other {ibesa wero the chief centres of disturbance. Tne piiuci;ial ate* waa in Tascany. There ia lilhlo doubt the movement was in part owing to Socialist organisation ; it was immediately duo to the increased prica of bread and to heavy taxation. At most of the centres of disturbance there was only a lootiug of provision shona and an attack upon the octroi tffice 1 ", acd consequent fights with the police and military. The chief centre of disturbance was Milan, where for several hours on Saturday Ust the mob held a pait of the city at their mercy. BARRICADES IN MILAN. It is not easy to give an accurate record of what hag happened in Italy, for the authorities have stopped all telegraphing of news, and this step has led to the circulation of the wiidett and mott impossible efcories. We learned one day J th&t Turin was in fkrnes, another di.y that the " icbels " had secured and lui-ned a large part of Milan, tbat a thousand lives I ad been lost in street fiihting, and that the ari^y had refused to act. It read like the Pahs Commune over again. Stripped of exaggeration, the state of affiirs in Northern Italy hao b?en b*d enough, but the riotera made no headway excepting at Milan, where there was undoubtedly a s*iarp struggle, bstiLg from Fiidßy night till Monday. The immediate cause of the dislurbai'co in Milan was the circulation ot revolutionary j leaflets among the wcrkmin at the Pirelia India-rubber Factory. A policeman attempted to arreit a distributer o? th«sa l&&fl>.t?. The workmen attacked lha efficsr, and when he tent to the bamcks for absistance there w»s a big fight, which er.deJ in several of the men being t&ken to prison. Ab the ii.t'rvcntiou ot some Socialist deputies tut meis were relaa*ed, and the depu'ien further announced to tte croTrd that the authorities had deckled to reduce til* 5 price of bread, and aboli-tb the city octrois. But D-mos bad tasted the j'>ys of disorder, and nobmths'&ndirg the concession, the taob stoi-.ed some carabineers who had been sent lo the Pirelli factory. The carabineers defended themselves, fchot two into, and wound-id a drzen others. Nest day, Saturday, 2COO workweu from (he Pirelli factory marched through the streets of Milan, and were immediately joined by the mob of tht 1 city. Shops wero plundered, especially the gunsmiths' and the bakers'; some house? of (he weil-to-do clause* were kotod, and the contents throv/u into the streets. The polire wsr3 overpowered, and when the military spp;arid on (he scane, chiefly ia the Lft> a ;bbo<j)hoo-1 of the Port* Vonez'a and the Goiso Garibaldi, the riotera a'opped the bra m o*l*3 and Luilb them into barricades. Wbon driven from ih& barricades — in one ca?e ifcis said that artilleiy were u^ed — the rioters took refuge on the housetops, and tbi\ittr tiiss ?nd chimney jo's on the foidinry below. Oao of tLo larticadc was made of furniture from th? Sftp-->rifei Pal^co, cf which placa the mob took p-.j*c«Hioc, At this point there was a four h< ura' pAtug^lti befo:& the so'difis obtained tie m\stery. A lcaa protracUd struggle tock pln.ee ia the Via Torino, and here, too, several rioters were killed. At one barricade, six fell dtad zt one volley. By Saturday crtijing the noting bad been sup- ; pressed, and the city vss hel.l by an over- | whelming force oi: troops Mid artillery. On Sunday nnd MoiuUy there wevu recurrences of the rit/Mnf, and the so'diery shot down g >- oup3 of people, if tin people darfcd to assemble in groups. The death roll at Milan ban been greatly exaggerated. Ib is doubtful whether Bi^re thai a hundred riol'srh were killed, pnd private letters assure us that the loss cf 1 fa i among the fokliera did net exc?e 1 20. BIOIIXG IN OTiiliH TOWNS. One of tbu ujo*b lemarkaUle stories of riob ! comes from B-'l'n ref-pjeting an outbreak at Mirifcrviuo. That j>lace ia s,a ; d to' have been in lha hunds of the mob for ei^hfc hours. After doinsj a doctor to death, the rioters rusufd to \ the fcoui-e of a mil iooaire mill-'-r. The raillionaite <fr*JsU*d bis f.o^iifinlg with t.h' b', zn<\ Isif n I thrd» ICOOh' ouj of tbe window among ths j crowd. The raob would not be bought f'i^, 1 ar.d, forcing open Ihe doer, they demanded j'• tho (Od usurer's hoacl." He effcred them thoussnds upon ihousat % d3 of francs — all kte fortune — but ifc was in vaio ; tho man was tattered to death, and his wife -aid. children bwtly escaped with their liyts. Th? mob then i vfeut on, plundering all tbe Lousfs of the batter clasisß, and robbing {he flour-m!!!)-. When Foldipra appeared on the sens the rioters all fled ; some 150 of the rmmbor wrnj arresfescJ. The Italians in several of the Swis3 towns have held meetings to expr-as sympathy with thair brethren across the frontit-r, and some of them have mads an < fix-it to g^t into Italy. A railway c.-.rriage fall was quieily droppe.l at one side station, btcftase tbe patriots had neglected to purchaso the nrcresary railv/ay tickets. About a thoufand started on foot from another Swiss town to walk gll the way to lUly, but before they had got mar.y mile* most of the crowd melted away in the wayside wine shops. To-day's telegrams inform us that ha'.f the country is in a stxte of siege, that many newspaper* have been suppressed and their editors arrested, thi\t the Italian authorities have tn.ken posßession of tho rail way p, and have espied out a part of fcbe reservea. There were great disorders at Luino ou Wednesday, and the prison w?.s stymied. Eight pessons were killfld. The dooi'3 of the churches afc Leghorn were soaked with pelrolmnu, but tfce military prevenled them bch-g tired. In the ricts at Florence the mob occupied the great square, and 20 of the number were shot down. Out it is impossible to believe half the siories that have been published ; they are ao wildly improbable. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that the ruing should have been so widespread, and should have taken placa a'most eimulteueously at very distant towns. This circumstance gives rise to the belief that the row at the Pirelli factory hastened the outbreak of a pre-arranged plan. Tbia ia in part, established by the Italian polica having found in the possession of Madame Kulicieff, a Nihilist, and a close friend of the Socialist Turati, a mass of correspondence relating to the organisation of disorders, and the outlines of a concerted 6chemo which compromises several Socialist and Republican leaders. CAUSES OP THE EISIXG. As the cause of these disturbances Tha Times corret.pouder.it says :— " For days past ib has been evident! to all who have eyes to aea that tltf series cf riot a in Italy bore a political

' characler. In tbe south east the rise in (ha piice of bread was doubtless at first tbe main cause of the outbreaks, but as the disturbances proceeded along the line of railway that connects Brindisi with Bari, Molfetta, Fcggia, Cbieli, Ascoli-Piceno, I'esaro, Rimini, Raviuna, Ferrara, Cremona, Piacer.za, Pavia, and Milan it became certain that bread was but the pretext for an insurrectionary moveraeufc prepared beforehand by the associations of navvies and j railway employee?, in which a etrong socialist and republican leaven had long been at work. I do not state positively thst a mot cCordrt was iisac<l by the chiefs of the revolutionary party. In Itsly that is unnecessary. Local vanity supplies the train along which tka revolutionary tpark may pass. J£o locality likes to bo outdone by a rival locality either ia ' good deeds or evil. It was this vanity, this competitive inflammability, which rendered possible the Itisorgimento ; it is the s.me qmlifcy which has permitted a revolutionary outbreak iv thia year of revolutionary Jubilee. It is a midair© to suppose that the conditions of life for tbe majority of Italians are &s bard new as they then were. National Rnd individual well-being has increased ; beside?, if it were necessary to explode the supposition that the present movement is due to want and di3tresB it would suffice to adduce the fact, that I it has been confined to the richest districts of the country. In almo6t every case workmen have struck work in order to riot, h»ve voluntarily forgone their pay io order to clamour for bread. What, then, are the causes ? They are three -(1) The agitation for cheap bread as a starting po ; nt and rallying ground ; (2) the development of Radical, Republican, ar.d Socialist orgai.isalione, prompted and encouraged by the culpable weakness of the Marquis di Rudini, and by the knowledge that the Minis' 17 would live at the mercy of tha ex'vtome serlior.s of the Chamber rather than cea«e to live ; (3) the political discontent steadily fem-nt^d for s:vtrßl yearj by tha bishops, pri^sb, and religious orders throughout the country, actisa: under general instruction" from tbe Vatican." WAS THE CHURCH INVOKtD ? But there are other r^ssons besides those staled by (ho coi respondent of yonc Lou'Jon contemporary. For several yearn past the political cocdili n of the country has been the cause of- much anxiety to tha we'.hvishtra of the kingdom. Italy has, on tbe one hand, b°ea tho viclim of the hostility of France, and, on tha other hand, of the hcf-tilify cf the Roman Churoh. All Frenchmen consider the Italians to be an ungrate fal people, tVr, fny they, did liofc Fr»: cc help (hem to cas 1 oS HieAuttiian yoke? To which tha It -lues l'-p'y, yes; bub did not the French annex N c t and Savoy, Rnd endeavour to control the whole of Italy's fore^n policy, as fh/ugb Italy were a va-sal kingdom? Kvery Italian will tell you that it was the hectoiing, Rggrfßfivs trratrnent of France which drove tho I alian Stite in'io the Triple A'li>inct'. As to the part pla;.ed by the church, i*i maintains towards tLe sla>,esmeuof lUIy an unquench.ible hostility, because they hsivo deprived the CAtho110 ejt-ibli^haseni. of nonch of its property, and have made th« Pope a " prisoner" in his own palace. For this car.se tbe gig*nfrc imchinery coutroMed by the Vatican hai made chaos of tha dome-'t ; c policy of the kingdom. The priests have boyc tted and, in every' possibh war, discredited each succeeding Government, for* bidding all Catholic voters to attend the pollingbooths, evea though by so doing they have played into the hinds of the Socialists and Revolutionists, whom they abhor. The directors of the church have hoped to control these hated e!emsntiF, co'laboi-atii'g with both S e'.tlisS an<i Republican part ifs (ss.ys a writer in The. Tim-'a) " for Ihs o?tiifhrosv of I he House of S*vjy, i» the hope that & F<?d^r.al Republic will prepare tha v;sy for the le-as^aMi'bmenfc of tho temporal power." This motive will accDun 1 ; for the pers'stfab fct'ompts of the clerical press to father ur-cn tLa monarchy the responsibility for every 111 that has happened to France.