At the sample fair organised by the Chamber of Commerce of Bolzano, a nest of Pangermanism, all Italian firms were excluded, so much so that the invitations were issued in German, and a Bavarian band played for the whole duration of the fair!
I come now to the events of 24th April, when a Fascista bomb, justly administered by way of reprisal, and for which I take upon myself the moral responsibility—(Loud applause and comments.)—marked the limit to which Fascismo intended that the German movement should go.
The demonstration of 24th April in the Tyrol was only a simultaneous manifestation to the plebiscite which had been summoned that day beyond the Brenner, because the Germans in the Upper Adige resort to these subtle tricks of making the same manifestations under different guises. In this way, when they publicly mourned the loss of the Upper Adige on this side of the Brenner, on the other they did the same for the fallen Austrian soldiers. When the Fascisti presented themselves at Bolzano, they found the police helmeted and tasselled, and when they were arrested, the enquiry was entrusted to Count Breitemburg, a notorious member of the Deutscher Verband.
I will not linger over the cases of Malmeter, because they are more like the chapters of a novel. But I cannot help mentioning one most curious episode.
The Commissioner of Merano went to the commune of Maja Alta and was received, not in the town hall, but in an old mansion house, where were gathered the mayor and the councillors. The commissioner read the form of the oath, and the mayor and the councillors, sitting down immediately, put on their hats and burst out laughing. The commissioner had hardly recovered from his surprise when the mayor rose to his feet and began a storm of abuse against the King, Italy and the commissioner, who, returning to Merano, requested the dismissal of this council. But the Deutscher Verband interceded with the governor, who returned the commissioner’s report, writing at the same time that it was not a good thing to practise irredentism. And the representatives of the commune remained as they were!
Since the period of mismanagement the Upper Adige is no longer bi-lingual. The mayor himself refused to accept the evidence he had asked for concerning the events of 24th April, because they were written in Italian. These are small individual cases, but they serve to give an idea of the whole situation.
At Megré the Italophobe president of the Young Catholics’ Club turned out two young men because they presented their demands in Italian, saying that that language would not do for his office and telling them to keep it for themselves. And among all those competing for the office of President of the Court of Appeal of redeemed Italian Trento, the one selected was a man who in 1915 had resigned his magistracy in order to serve as a “Kaiser-Jäger” volunteer under the Austrian flag. To-day this man administers justice in the name of Italy! (Comments.)
If you imagine that the postal and telegraphic services in the Upper Adige are in Italian hands, you are much mistaken. The Deutscher Verband has control of all the communications and disposes of them at its pleasure. Although 24th April was a holiday, the Pangermans and the heads of the movement at Innsbruck were kept informed all along of the development of events at Bolzano, while all communications with the civil and military authorities were cut and the town completely isolated from Trento and the rest of Italy for twenty-four hours. This is the situation.
What the Fascisti ask as regards the Upper Adige. Gentlemen of the Government, as regards the Upper Adige, we ask you for these immediate measures:
1. The abolition of everything which reminds us of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, even in outward form. Because I wish to say to the House that it is useless to make compacts to prevent the return of the Hapsburgs with the Austrian heirs, who are more Austrian than Austria, when we leave a great part of Austria intact within our own boundaries.