Marie Antoinette & Sanctions
Two days before all Italy was aroused last week by the screech of Fascist sirens and the clang of Catholic church bells rung by special permission of the Pope, quiet Professor Felice Guarneri had matters of vital moment to discuss in his snug Roman office at the Ministry of Finance. One day last June the Professor was abruptly summoned by the Dictator, given absolute control over Italy's exports & imports. Since then no Italian has been able to get foreign exchange with which to buy anything abroad without Guarneri's O. K. No other man alive knows so much about what Italy's real powers to resist economic sanctions may be, and the Professor is no cloistered scholar. Captured and clapped into a German prison camp during the Great War, he went home to run the Chamber of Commerce in Italy's great port of Genoa, was executive boss of the Dictatorship's control office for Industry when II Duce summoned him last spring. The odd thing about what Guarneri had to say last week as to Italy's position if she must face economic sanctions (see p. 23) was that his estimate tallied closely with those current in the world's leading fiscal circles.
"Even last June the British were exerting pressure," snapped the Professor. "They were demanding immediate payment from us for bunker coal and freezing up on credit." Off the record Italians were said to have noted that, within 24 hours after II Duce refused the concessions regarding Ethiopia offered by Britain last summer (TIME, Aug. 26), British bankers flashed urgent messages to their U. S. affiliates and, when these curtailed credit to Italy, their action was given by British bankers subsequently as a reason why they could not extend credit to Italy. "I have been steadily engaged in adjusting the National economy to [such] existing conditions in the past few months," continued Guarneri on the record. "These measures have now been taken. Imports we have reduced to the most crucial minimums, and all Italian resources public and private have been pooled to pay for imports which are indispensable. How much we have obtained or hope to obtain by [forced] repatriation of Italian funds abroad is naturally our secret, as important as any military secret!"
Since the vast sums spent on Italian public works during the 13 years of Fascism have nearly all been directed toward making Italy more self-sufficient, Guarneri noted that these will now reduce the effectiveness of sanctions. "I might paraphrase Marie Antoinette," said he with a wry smile. "The Queen's notion was that if the people could not have bread they might have to eat cake and Italians may have to wear natural silk, of which Italy produces plenty, instead of cotton, of which we produce little or none. Having electrified many of our railways, the coal saved is now going into the bunkers of troop ships. We are pinched today. But it is a choice of evils. We must overflow elsewhere or blow up in Europe. We can perhaps hold out longer than other peoples who have little to go on because, although the Almighty gave Italy little, He provided plenty of sunshine and an Italian spirit that can stand much privation."