ITALIAN AFFAIRS

Otago Witness, Issue 3590, 2 January 1923, Page 16

ITALIAN AFFAIRS

SIGNOR MUSSOLINI’S POLICY. ROME, December 20. Signor Mussolini has appointed Signor Edoardo Torre Deputy High Commissioner of Railways. Signor Torre has been instructed to dismiss all railwaymen who were not fighting during the war, replacing them by ex-combatants. The railway staff will also he reduced by 40,000, and the eight hours’ day will consist of eight hours’ actual work. Signor Torre will repress theft on the railways, which has cost the State 120,000,000 lire per year, and will introduce iron discipline. FASCISTI FORCES AS MILITIA. ROME, December 21. The Government has decided to transform the Tascisti forces into militia for national defence under Signor Mussolini s direction. The force will be on a voluntary basis, the men receiving pay only after mobilisation. The royal guards and carabineers will be greatly reduced. It is estimated that the cost of the militia will be 12,000,000 lire annually, as compared with a milliard lire for the guards and carabineers. . A number of volunteers will be asked to serve as regulars immediately, and the remainder will be placed on the reserve. DRASTIC CURES. ; LONDON, December 21. Tlie Daily Chronicle’s Rome correspondent says that after a fortnight’s efforts drunkenness and crime have been banished from Allesandria, in Lombardy. First of all the drunkards were cured by doses of castor oil, and then the habitual thieves and blackguards were collected at a thieves’ conference, and were told that they would be soundly cudgelled unless they changed their habits. It took two days to cure the drunken ness. Bands of stalwart hascisti, armed

witli thick sticks, paraded the streets, and every person who was even moderately under the influence of liquor was seized, and was given’ a very stiff dose of castor oil, and warned that next time he would be soundly beaten. The Fascisti al6o ordered that a supply of castor oil be kept in every public house and placards exhibited, declaring what drunkards were liable to. EFFECTIVE FASCISTI METHODS. LONDON, December 21. Ex-criminals sought the Fascisti headquarters, where tney were housed until employment was found for them. Meanwhile all gambling establishments haye been closed, and low class theatres and kinemas are being supervised. The castor oil and cudgel will probably be carried like a fiery cross through Italy, as Signor Mussolini has telegraphed his approval of the methods of the Alessandria Fascisti. Half-hour strong patrols of Faecisti visited the cafes, wine shops, and restaurants, and on the third day not a single dose of castor oil was administered. A thieves’ eongre s was then called, and a sternly-worded warning was issued to ex-convicts, burglars, thieves, pickpockets, and others, warning them that it would be unwise not to attend. As most had already tasted the castor oil, they did not require further warning. At the congress they were told that if they did not change their trade they would have to reckon with the Fascisti cudgels, which would send them to hospital or the mortuary cell. The campaign opened the following day, and daily and nightly the cudgel was applied in Alessandria until crime disappeared