By Benito Mussolini
Honourable gentlemen!
The question raised by the Honourable Farinacci and other comrades in this assembly affords me the opportunity of immediately making some very precise statements — very timely statements — which I could not possibly have postponed to the next parliamentary session, which cannot occur before the second half of April.
You understand that I am speaking not only to you and that I am speaking not for the sake of entering into debate with the head of the Bavarian Government, but that I am speaking to clear up the ideas of those who insist on keeping them confused; I am speaking because I believe that, as is the case in relations between individuals, so in the relations between nations it is always better to speak frankly and at the right moment, in true Fascist style.
For three years the Fascist Government has followed a very temperate policy toward Germany and has never harassed that defeat-stricken nation. Italy has always opposed all measures of extreme severity. The Germans themselves, even the more dispassionate ones, have in the past explicitly recognized this.
Last year after long negotiations we concluded with Germany a commercial treaty, the first which that nation made after the expiration of the commercial clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. And it is precisely after the agreements of Locarno and after the commercial treaty that in Germany suddenly, as if obeying a word of command, an anti-Italian campaign was unleashed — a nefarious and ridiculous campaign. (Approvals). Nefarious because it sprang from a mass of lies, well-known and obvious lies. (Approvals). Ridiculous because it sought to frighten this young, proud Fascist Italy, which allows nobody to frighten it. (Vivid approvals).
They lied when they spoke of the removal of the statue of the German Poet Walter, which stands in one of the Piazzas of Bolzano. We always respect poetry, even when it is very mediocre in quality (laughter), but we cannot accept the antithesis Walter-Dante, because if we did we would be admitting the possibility of establishing a comparison between the Pincio and the Himalayas. (Laughter). We will leave intact the statue of this Germanic minstrel, but, very probably in one of the Piazzas of Bolzano, by popular subscriptions of the Italian nation, on the very foundations in which a monument celebrating the victory of German arms in the last war would have risen, we will erect a monument to Cesare Battisti (loud, enthusiastic, unanimous applause. The whole Chamber springs to its feet and cheers. The public in the tribunes participate in the cheering) and the other martyrs, who with their blood and their sacrifice wrote the final word of our history in Alto Adige! (Vivid approvals).
Then they invented the story of the burning of a monument dedicated to Empress Elizabeth in Bressanone.
Then they spoke at length of Fascist concentrations and expeditions. Then there appeared in the German papers bloodcurdling accounts of terrible violence perpetrated against German tourists, while in fact only two incidents have occurred, and they were so insignificant that they were not even reported to me until four months after they had taken place.
Then they spoke of apologies which the Italian Government, they said, would address to the German Embassy in Rome for the demonstrations of university students. This, also, is a foolish lie.
But all this, though it was sufficient to determine what the Germans call the "stimmung", or the general tone, they had not yet succeeded in tickling the "gemütlichkeit", or, in other words, a kind of half materialistic and very lacrimose sentimentalism. (Laughter). The story was therefore invented that the tyrant Mussolini had forbidden the poor Germans in Alto Adige from having the traditional Christmas trees on Holy Christmas Day. Even this is a stupid, ridiculous lie, and the idea of forbidding any such thing never even passed through the famous castings of the antechamber of my brain. (Laughter).
When this chain of sentiments, which — as I have shown you — began with lies and was fed on lies, had been created, the idea was advanced of boycotting Italian goods.
They even talked of a tourist boycott of Italy. Let us get this question of the tourists straight once and for all.
We are an eminently hospitable people. This is the result of our ancient, millennial civilization. ("Benissimo!"). Hospitable we are and hospitable we wish to remain, even when our hospitality is taken advantage of; even when a primitive and often unworthy "folklore" (approvals) is dragged throughout our adorable cities, even when we see men and women, in primitive clothing worthy only of the jungle, strolling over the marbles of our wonderful palaces and of our sacred and monumental basilicas. (Approvals). But nobody must delude himself into thinking that he can force Italy to her knees by a tourist boycott. (Approvals). Italy lives very differently and has many other energies, and many come to Italy not to benefit us, but merely to live more cheaply and benefit themselves. (Approvals).
In any case, while I am on the subject of boycotts, I must declare with the greatest emphasis that if tomorrow a boycott was applied against us and became an accepted principle or had the tacit tolerance of the responsible authorities, we would reply with a boycott raised to the second power, and that if any reprisals were attempted we would reply with reprisals raised to the third power. (Vivid and prolonged applause).
We are so insolent and so explicit, and we believe that by speaking clearly we are magnificently furthering the cause of truth, of civilization and also of peace.
We are ready to suppress the old formula a bit and say that, sometimes, it is necessary to pay with two eyes for the loss of only one eye, and a whole set of teeth for the loss of only one tooth. (Approvals).
Some thought, after the protest of the consuls of all nations in Venice and after the protests of many German citizens who are in Italy and by their peaceful trades pile up profits undisturbed, that the agitation would end.
Such was not to happen.
We had, instead, the speech delivered yesterday by Herr Held in the Bavarian Landstag.
After having appealed — once more — to that spirit of Locarno, which by dint of speaking about it will soon become a soft, evanescent and even unbearable thing (laughter) as with all hypocritical things (laughter), the head of the Bavarian Government went on to say:
"We must do everything in our power to mitigate the situation in South Tyrol, we must do what is necessary to free the Germans of Alto Adige. Even though I am in this place I must raise the severest possible protest against the brutal violence which is being perpetrated in South Tyrol."I declare that this speech is simply unheard of.
Unheard of from a diplomatic point of view, because there never has existed, not even before the war, a question of a German South Tyrol. In the second place the question of Alto Trentino (Alto Adige) has been settled by the treaties of peace and by the treaty of peace which we have concluded with Austria at St. Germain.
It is quite unheard of to speak of violence, and especially of brutal violence, committed by the Fascist government in Alto Adige!
In Alto Adige we are merely carrying out a policy of Italianity. ("Good!"). We consider them Italian citizens and apply to them our laws. If we did not, then we would have the spectacle of a State within a State! (Vivid approvals).
What is more: the Fascist Government, in many matters, has gone to lengths to meet the needs of those populations.
I cite the issue of the so-called lombardized loans. I was supposed to receive a commission of the peasants of Alto Adige who thought to offer me a sign of their gratitude.
But when Italy is Roman and Latin it does nothing in comparison to what they do in other States.
This very day Czechoslovakia applies its rules for the use of the Czech language in the administration of the State, yet the German newspapers in Prague and in other cities do not protest against the tyranny of the Czechoslovak Republic.
It is worth while to remind you once again, and especially to remind the Italian people, and to inform the civilized world, of what the intentions of the leaders of pan-Germanism were in the event of a victory of German arms. At the Assembly of Vipiteno, held a few months before our victory on the Piave, which was the lead in the wings of the German dreams, a resolution was passed, containing, among other things, the following:
"As for Italy, we must have natural boundaries, which shall better defend the Trentino and Austria, and shall join again to the latter her old territories, such as the thirteen and seven communes in the Province of Vicenza. Rectification of frontiers with extension of Austria beyond the Upper Valleys of the Adda and the Oglio rivers as far as the Southern shores of Lake Garda (Desenzano and Peschiera), and, besides this, large war indemnities. The language of the German State, tendency of the German State, and absolute refusal to allow the formation of autochthonous States either to the North or to the South. Unity and indivisibility of territory from Kufstein as far as the canal of Verona, absolute refusal of any measure of autonomy to the so-called Italian Trentino, complete transformation of all the schools, with the introduction of the teaching of the German language in all schools. Inexorable war against Italian Irredentism, on the one hand by protecting and favouring the Germans and on the other by evicting all the irredentist elements, until such a time as the whole of the Italian Trentino shall again have become completely and finally Austrian. No amnesty and no return for Italian deserters. Forfeiture of as much of their substances as they can get their hands on, and use of the same substances to repair the damages of war, especially to cater to the fate of the soldiers loyal to the State of Tyrol."(Comments).
These were the intentions of those who today protest.
I believe that at the bottom of this campaign there is a basis of ignorance. ("Benissimo!"). I believe that many Germans do not know us yet. They evidently still see — and it is understandable, because the moral development of nations are necessarily slow — they evidently still see the Italy of twenty or thirty years ago. They are unaware that Italy has 42,000,000 inhabitants in its narrow peninsula, and that, having nine or ten millions more living abroad, it has a total man power of some 52,000,000 souls. Above all, they are unaware — which is far more important than these purely statistical data — of our spirit, of our pride, of our sense of dignity, of our moral force. They do not know Fascist Italy, which they still consider in the nature of an episode, of a picturesque political episode. They have not yet grasped the deep forces, the traditional instincts, which are at the bottom of our movement and guarantee its life and make its future certain. (Vivid approvals).
Will they learn? We have reason to hope so!
I must, in any case, declare with absolute precision that the Italian policy in Alto Adige will not change by one iota. (Vivid applause).
We shall apply rigorously, methodically, obstinately, with that method, with that cold tenacity which is typical of our Fascist style, all our laws, those that we have already voted and those that we shall vote in the future. (Vivid applause). We will make that region Italian, because it is Italian (vivid applause); it is Italian geographically, and it is Italian historically. (Vivid approvals).
In truth one may say of our frontier on the Brenner, that it is a boundary traced by the infallible hand of God. (Vivid applause).
The Germans in Alto Adige are not a national minority, but an ethnic relic. They number only 180,000, while in Czechoslovakia alone — a State the nucleus of which is composed of 5,000,000 Czechs — there are 3,500,000 Germans.
Of these 180,000 Germans in Alto Adige, I maintain that 80,000 are Italians who have become Germanized, and whom we shall attempt to redeem by making them find again their old Italian names, which may be seen in all the records of Civil Status, and by making them feel the pride of being citizens of our great Italian fatherland. (Vivid approvals).
The others are the remnant of barbarian invasions (applause), when Italy, in the impossibility of being a power for herself, was the battlefield of other powers of the West and North.
Even for them we will adopt the Roman policy of severe equanimity.
To the German people we say: Even with you the Fascist people wish to be friends, but friends looking you in the eye, friends with your hands above your heads (laughter), friends without those more or less culturalized self-sufficiencies which now no longer impress us. (Approvals).
My speech must be considered as being my decision as to the political and diplomatic position I shall take in this matter. I hope it will be understood by those whose duty it is to listen, lest the Italian Government see itself obliged to pass to concrete replies, as it is determined to do tomorrow if the German Government should take upon itself the responsibility of what has occurred and what may yet occur in Germany. (Vivid applause).
Honourable gentlemen!
The other day a Fascist newspaper, one of those provincial Fascist papers which I always read with the greatest attention, printed across six columns this headline: 'Fascist Italy will never lower its flag on the Brenner'.
I sent the newspaper back to its editor with this correction: "Fascist Italy may, if necessary, carry its flag beyond the Brenner, but lower it, never!"
(All the Deputies and Ministers spring to their feet. Vivid, enthusiastic, prolonged applause, in which the public in the tribunes participates. Repeated cies of "Vive il Duce." Renewed applause. Fascist hymn "Giovinezza" sung by all in chorus.)
