Speech in Treviso, September 21, 1938

By Benito Mussolini

Comrades!

I begin my journey among the people of Triveneto with this unfortunately brief stop in your very proud land. (The crowd longly shouts: "Come back! Come back!").

Da questa città e da questa terra che ebbe l'orgoglio di vedere nuovamente le armate italiane raggiungere una delle più grandi vittorie che la storia del mondo ricordi, desidero invitare tutti gli Italiani. che in questo momento mi ascoltano, a compiere, non soltanto nella ricorrenza del ventennale della Vittoria, un pellegrinaggio dalle rive del Piave ai costoni del Carso.

In the first place they will see the monuments that we have dedicated to the memory of our Fallen, monuments that have gigantic proportions. The glorious mothers of our heroes will be able to see the names of their fallen, their loved ones, engraved in metal which will endure through the centuries.

Then they will see what Italy has done over the past twenty years in the redeemed lands, in Trieste and Gorizia: workshops, construction sites, factories, power plants which are unique in the world; furthermore they will see that the alloglot populations, small fringes of the great Slavic mass, who came to this side of the mountains in past times, have demonstrated with their spontaneous manifestations to be fully involved in the life of the Italian Nation.

No one forced the alloglot population of the Isonzo valley to approach me. A battalion of Blackshirts, composed entirely of alloglots, paraded in front of me in Trieste in the Piazza dell'Unità in a simply superb way. (Shouts of: "Viva il Duce!"). These populations feel proud to participate in our national and imperial life, which is why we can observe in certain delusional and malevolent polemics from beyond the Alps, that, in order to solve certain problems, particular historical circumstances are needed and it is necessary, above all, that these problems have large proportions.

If Czechoslovakia is today in a position that might be called delicate, the reason is that it was not simply Czechoslovakia, but rather Czecho-Germano-Polish-Magyar-Ruthene-Romanian-Slovakia.

I must today urge that from the moment when this problem is faced, it must be solved comprehensively.

At this moment the British Prime Minister, who took the political initiative, is piloting the ship towards the port of peace.

According to a telegram from the official French agency, the Czech government, after a whole night of consultations, accepted the Franco-British proposal formulated in the meeting this morning in London.

All foreign observers had to admit — perhaps reluctantly — that of all the peoples of Europe the people who remained quietest in the face of this crisis were the Italians. This is due to the Fascist revolution, (shouts of: "It is due to the Duce!") which finally made the Italians. Today there are no longer Italians of the west or east, of the mainland or of the islands: there are only Italians. Italians who, under the symbol of the Lictor, are always ready to fight and win.