The text of the circular sent to office-holders was the following:
“From to-day, intrusted with the confidence of His Majesty the King, I undertake the direction of the Government of the Country. I demand that all authorities, from the highest to the least, discharge their duties with intelligence and with complete regard for the supreme interests of the Country.
“I will set the example.
“The President of the Council and Ministry of the Interior. Signed: Mussolini.”
Finally I announced for November the 16th a meeting of the chamber of deputies, to render an account of what I had done, and to announce my intentions and programme.
It was an exceptional meeting. The hall was filled to overflowing. Every deputy was present. My declarations were brief, clear, energetic. I left no misunderstanding. I stated sharply the rights of revolution. I called the attention of the audience to the fact that only by the will of Fascism had the revolution remained within the boundaries of legality and tolerance.
“I could have made,” I said, “of this dull and gray hall a bivouac for corpses. I could have nailed up the doors of parliament and have established an exclusively Fascist government. I could have done those things, but—at least for a time—I did not do them.”
I then thanked all my collaborators and pointed with sympathy to the multitude of Italian laborers who had aided the Fascist movement with their active or passive solidarity.
I did not present one of the usual programmes that the past ministries used to present; for these solved the problems of the country only on paper. I asserted my will to act and to act without delaying for useless oratory. In the field of foreign politics I squarely declared the intention of following a “policy of dignity and national utility.”
On every subject I made weighty declarations that showed how Fascism had already been able to assay and analyze and solve varying and urgent problems, and to fix the future outlines of government. Finally I concluded: