I wish to say, however, that no anti-Semitism, which would be new in this hall, must be read into my words.
I recognise the fact that the sacrifices made by the Italian Jews during the war were considerable and generous, but now it is a question of examining certain political positions and of indicating what line the Government might eventually adopt.
An alliance between the Arabs and the Christians has now been established in Palestine, and a party formed at the Conference of Jaffa, which opposes by civil war all Jewish immigration. On the 1st and 14th of May, serious disturbances occurred which resulted in some hundreds of wounded and several deaths, including a writer of note.
Now, according to the Bulletin du Comité des Délégations Juives, page 19, it appears that the text of the English Mandate for Palestine must be submitted to the Council of the Society of the League of Nations in the next meeting at Geneva. I should wish the Government, in this delicate situation, to accept the point of view of the Vatican.
This is in the interest of the Jews, who, having fled from the pogroms of Ukraine and Poland, must not meet Arab pogroms in Palestine; moreover, it is advisable that the Western nations should refrain from creating a painful legal position for the Jews, since to-morrow those same Jews, becoming citizen-subjects of those States, might immediately form foreign colonies within them.
THE ATTITUDE OF FASCISMO TOWARDS COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM
Same speech delivered in the Chamber, 21st June 1921.
Hon. Mussolini. I do not wish to enlarge upon the question of foreign policy, as I should then find myself out in the open, and I might ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs what Italy’s position exactly is in the face of the formidable conflicts which loom upon the horizon of international politics. While Count Sforza is at the head of Foreign Affairs in Giolitti’s Cabinet, we Fascisti cannot but find ourselves among the opposition. (Comments.)
I shall pass now to an examination of the position of Fascismo with regard to the various parties—(Signs of attention.)—and I shall begin with the Communists.
Communism, the Hon. Graziadei teaches me, springs up in times of misery and despair. When the total sum of the wealth of the world is much reduced, the first idea that enters men’s minds is to put it all together so that everyone may have a little. But this is only the first phase of Communism, the phase of consumption. Afterwards comes the phase of production, which is very much more difficult; so difficult, indeed, that that great and formidable man (not yet legislator) who answers to the name of Wladimiro Ulianoff Lenin, when he came to shaping human material, became aware that it was a good deal harder than bronze or marble. (Approval and comments.)