Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎38r] (75/978)

34402
D
Party) is acceptable to more moderate and
balanced leaders within the party such as
Lombardo and Morandi.
The Socialist Party of Italian Workers
(Saragat) has not been slow to take
advantage of this fresh opportunity for
dIOouncing Nenni whom it now considers
to be completely sold to the Communists.
Signor Saragat has suggested the setting
up of a new Socialist Workers Inter
national. It is clear that the P.S.L.I. is
making use of the crisis to angle for the
support of the British Labour Party. Up
to now the P.S.L.I. has failed to gain the
allegiance of the mass of industrial
workers in the north on whose support any
Socialist party must rely, and its position
has been rendered more difficult and indeed
precarious by its non-recognition on the
part of leading Socialist Parties abroad.
Some agitation has been aroused lately
by the renewal of allegedly neo-Fascist
activities. It has been suggested that the
25 ex-Fascists recently arrested in connec
tion with the bomb outrage against Com
munist headquarters in Milan, and in
whose houses considerable stores of arms
and ammunition were found, were members
of the A.I.L. (Armata Italiana della
Liberia), a clandestine revolutionary
organisation believed to be co-ordinating
most non-Communist underground activi
ties. The emergence of the Movimento
Sociale Italiano with avowedly Fascist
tendencies which captured 24,000 votes in
last week's municipal election in Rome is
also perturbing.
The disturbance which arose at one of
its meetings, in the Parliament Square
(Montecitorio) two days ago before the
elections was aggravated by the arrival of
a group of Monarchists to the tune of the
Royal March, and by the acclamation of
the Duce by a woman in the crowd. Depu
ties trying to persuade the police to disperse
the crowd themselves came to blows with the
demonstrators, and the whole episode was
the cause of a bitter wrangle in the Con
stituent Assembly. While relatively unim
portant in itself this is a further example
of frayed tempers engendered by economic
difficulties and political uncertainties and
ominously reminiscent of the 1920-1922
period. Nevertheless, the process of
purging is not yet dead and seven leaders
of the Fascist Social Republic are now on
trial in Rome. The leading prisoner is
Prince lunio Valenio Borghese who is on
trial for his life. The Prince commanded
the notorious Fascist Naval division which
constituted Mussolini’s fleet after the
Italian Navy had sailed to Malta, and
which later continued its resistance on
land. It is also announced that Grandi,
former Italian Ambassador in London, now
living in Portugal, will be tried in his
absence in Rome on the 25th November.
The result of the plebiscite held in Briga
and Tenda on the 12th October (Summary
No. 413 under “ France ”) has caused great
indignation in the Italian press. The
French are generally accused of (a) ex
cluding Italians from voting, (b) violating
the secrecy of the ballot and (c) bringing
non-residents to the polls. The Ministry
of Foreign Affairs has sent a note to the
French Government commenting on the
conditions under which the plebiscite was
taken, but acknowledging that the matter
is officially regarded as a domestic French
concern as the territory is now part of
France.
Sir Victor Mallet presented his creden
tials to President di Nicola on the 20th
October.
Duke Tomaso Gallarati-Scotti, the new
Italian Ambassador to the Court of St.
James, arrived in London on the 15th
October. The Duke, who is sixty-nine years
of age, is a member of one of the oldest
Lombard families. He has been interested
in social questions since his youth and has
in particular studied the problem of emi
gration—with Filippo Turati the Lombard
Socialist leader he helped to found the
Popular University of Milan in 1902. In
1913 he spent a year in England with the
eminent critic and religious thinker
Frederick Von Hiigel studying English life
and culture.
During the First World War he was
A.D.C. to General Cadorna. After the war
he dedicated himself to writing and took no
part in the political life of the country
during the Fascist regime. In 1943 after
the occupation of Italy by the Germans,
he participated in partisan activities.
Later he was compelled to flee to Switzer
land where he continued his anti-Fascist
work while his wife the Duchess Aurelia,
who will be coming to London shortly,
continued underground activities in
Lombardy.
In 1944 Gallarati-Scotti was appointed
Ambassador in Madrid where he remained
until recalled in December 1946 when Italy
followed the lead of the United Nations
in withdrawing her representative. When
in Madrid he proved himself to be almost
pathetically anxious to be guided by the
Allied Ambassadors.
The Foreign Ministers Deputies for the
ex-Italian Colonies have continued to make
good progress. Most contentious questions