We missed then that legitimate satisfaction which should have come to us as of right and from duty fulfilled during and after the war.
Colonial development would not have been for us merely a logical consequence of our population problem, but would have provided a formula for the solution of our economic situation. Even now, at this distance of ten years from the war, this problem has still to find its full solution. Our colonies are few, and not all open to extensive improvement. Eritrea, which is the first of our colonies, has not undergone any change. Somaliland has been augmented by British Giubaland, following a diplomatic accord.
Lately, thanks to the wise policies of Governor De Vecchi, we have pacified all Somaliland, and considerable Italian capital is moving toward that colony of ours, to be used for definite objects and to provide work for Italian labor. The Libian colony—which includes Cirenaica and Tripolitania—was reduced during the war to the occupation of the coast and some of the principal cities. Fascism, on assuming power, found grave conditions. These also have been cleared up. Our policy of military occupation, and of course of economic penetration, has assured us the full and uncontested domination of Cirenaica as far as Giarabub, and of Tripolitania as far as the border recognized by treaties of international character.
There is a great fervor of rebirth in both colonies. Tripoli has become one of the most beautiful Mediterranean cities. A congress of medical men has adjudged it a health resort. We have found water for the city and water in the hills for irrigation. I made a visit to the zone of Tripoli, and that gave me a conviction as to all the possibilities for improvements that can be extended to the entire colony. There are zones in Garian which can compete in production and fertility with the better zones of southern Italy. The same can be said about the high plain of Cirenaica. In this last region I have abolished a curious form of parliament created by the weakness of our former governments. Now the governors enjoy complete influence and complete responsibility for the welfare of nations and Italians. These regions are pacified. Immigration continues to go there. Capital goes; laborers go.
These two colonies alone cannot solve our population problem. Mark this well. But with good-will and with the help of the typical colonizing qualities of Italians, we can give value to two regions which once were owned by Rome and which must grow to the greatness of their past and contribute to the new and greatly expanding possibilities of our general economic progress.
Into these labors to rebuild Italy’s peaceful position before the world, and to develop as duty dictates every colonial possibility which may help to solve our population problems, I have put my days and some of my sleepless nights. But it would be absurd to suppose that life was quite so easy for me as to allow me to stop with international and colonial questions.
Let us turn to the amazing and dramatic financial situation.
A leader of the Liberal party in parliament, Peano, six months before the March on Rome, had defined the deficit of our budget by a figure of more than six billions!
The financial situation was then, according even to the declaration of our opponents, desperately serious. I knew what a difficult inheritance I had received. It had come down to me as a legacy from the errors and weaknesses of those who had preceded me. In fact, I fully understood that with such an important leak in the hull of the Ship of State, any great voyage of progress would be impossible. Finance, then, was one of the most delicate and urgent problems to be solved, if I wanted to rebuild and elevate our credit abroad and at home.
There were many demands due and waiting; necessity had turned the printing presses to the production of new paper-money, driving down and down the value of Italian currency. An irresponsible and demagogic policy had been followed, which had brought about complex makeshifts. These not only affected the soundness of the budget, but also were undermining all our economic life and the whole efficiency of the state.