Aug. 4.
Ar this distance there can be no attempt to follow the intricacles of the Italian political crisis. With a parliament split into innumerable divisions, some having the possibility of coalesce ing, others separated by what might almost be called a blood feud, it would require a whole volume to catalogue the different influences at work. Suffice it to say that after much difficulty Signor Facta appears to have; been able to form a Cabinet, but even the most sanguine can scarcely hope for a prolonged existence for it. The trouble is that as an outcome of the last election no party has a majority. The Catholic Party can produce about a hundred and ten votes, the Socialists: perhaps a hundred and twenty, the Official Party roughly the same, and then there; are odd groups of communists, independents and what we would describe as extreme conservatives. In such a case as this the last groups can easily pull rather more than their weight in the boat, and there is little wonder that difficulty was experienced reaching any sort of agreement. Signor Facta resign. ed the Premiership because of his cabinet's failure to handle the internal affairs of the country successfully; he is back again to-day, which means that Signor Giolitti's policy will again be in the ascendant, for Signor Facta has well been described as his adjutant. But as we have said, the cabinet can be little more than a temporary affair, in fact the impossibility of securing a working majority is so great that had not Signor Facta been able to form this cabinet, it is just possible that the King might have ordered. a dissolution and a new appeal to the country in the hope of getting something workable out of the situation.
The point that is of interest to the outside observer in the Italian political crisis is the part played. by the Fascisti. To-day the extreme socialists have called a strike, and these F-scisti are working on the side of the Government, which means op the side of the people, in carrying on the public services of the country. At the same time we note that the new cabinet excludes both the Fascisti and the socialists, although as regards the latter we imagine that the term has been too broadly applied. The socialists of Italy are grouped in three divisions, and the gulf between the moderates and the extremists is so great that they scarcely ought to be classed under the same title. Doubtless what has occurred is that Signor Facta has arrived at a compromise between the moderate men of all parties, and in doing so has been forced to exclude not only the extreme socialists but likewise those ardent patriots, the Fascisti. The latter have scarcely a group as yet in Parliament, although there are one or two representatives, but as a force in the country they are quite remarkable, and apparently they possess the elements making for power which few organizations in any country have. Their fights with the communists during the present crisis show the degree of hatred and fear in which they are held i by those of subversive tendencies, and while in many respects their
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.