Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎207v] (422/978)

10
Last-minute intervention by the Federal
Council has induced employers and em
ployees in the building industry to settle
their current disputes (see Summary
No. 396) by means of a collective wage
agreement covering the whole of Switzer
land. Provision is made for increased
wages, paid holidays, and sickness in
surance, the employer paying two-thirds
of the premium. The Price Controller has
authorised an increase of between 8 and
10 per cent, in building costs. The wage
rate for bricklayers in Basle has been pro
visionally fixed at 2-67 frs., and that of
labourers at 2-29 frs. per hour.
The American Bill dealing with the
compensation of neutral countries which
suffered damage as a result of military
operations during the war has been sub
mitted to the Senate. It is reported that
the sum provided for the damage caused
by the bombing of Schaffhausen amounts to
about 12 million dollars.
The Federal Council have asked the
Federal Assembly for a new credit of
20 , 000,000 frs. for the continuation of
Swiss relief work abroad.
ITALY
Italian ratification of the Peace Treaty
does not seem likely to take place in the
immediate future. The uncertainty about
ratification by the U.S.S.R. is the deciding
factor in the situation. Ratification would
be unpopular in Italy, and even if it was
certain that the U.S.S.R. were about to
ratify Signor De Gasperi would be taking
a considerable risk if he went further than
he and Count Sforza have already done in
urging the Constituent Assembly to ratify.
The position of the Government is
indeed precarious, and on this question
Signor De Gasperi is faced by the likeli
hood of united opposition by the parties of
the extreme Right and of the majority of
the Left. In addition he has to fight the
obstinate opposition of various Elder
Statesmen, such as Signor Orlando and
Signor Groce, who are bitterly opposed to
the ratification by Italy of a Treaty which
they consider has been forced upon her by
the victors. Signor De Gasperi has also to
face division in his own party, for Don
Sturzo still has a certain influence on some
Christian Democrats owing to his leader
ship after the war of 1914-18, and his
opposition to ratification is violent.
Both Signor De Gasperi and Count
Sforza are undoubtedly doing all they can,
short of wrecking the Government, to
persuade the Italians of the merits of
ratification. The* Messaggero of the 18th
published an interview with Count Sforza
in which he urged that natification was
necessary if Italy was to live up to the
important part allotted to her in Paris.
He pointed out also that the appa^mt
unwillingness of the U.S.S.R. to ratify mis
difficult to understand in view of the fact
that the Russians regarded the Treaty as
equitable and in no need of revision. This
argument seems perhaps a little naive in
view of the Count’s next observation which
was to the effect that ratification was
necessary if Italy was to seek revision.
Apart from the feeling that Italian
ratification is uncalled for before the
Soviet Union ratifies, there are two other
considerations which have some weight
with the Government as well as with the
opposition parties. Italy is very much
aware of the situation in Greece and is
watching both the extent of Western help
and the attitude adopted by the U.S.S.R.
to Greece’s Balkans neighbours, as she feels
that she may expect a similar attitude both
from West and East to her own problems.
The other factor in the situation is the sense
that Italy is suffering yet another injustice
in the attitude adopted by the International
Boundary Commission in regard to the
Italo-Yugoslav frontier in the neighbour
hood of Gorizia (see below).
The question of ratification was
expected to come before the Constituent
Assembly on the 22nd of July. It was
reported that the Government intended to
propose a formula to the following effect:—
“ The Government is authorized to make
the Peace Treaty effective when it becomes
operative under Article 90 of the Treaty ”
— i.e. when the Big Four have deposited
their ratifications in Paris. Apparently
this proposal was expected to meet with
the approval of the Communists and
Socialists as well as with that of the
Christian Democrats. It is an unsatis
factory An East India Company trading post. solution, but it must be remembered
that Italians tend to rate highly the help
which they gave to the Allies in their
struggle with Germany, and that they feel
that it compared favourably with the help
given by France, whose position as one of
the “ victorious powers ” imposing a harsh
peace on Italy is regarded as totally
unjustified.
Since March of this year the Inter
national Commission for the Demarcation
of a Provisional Frontier between Italy
and Yugoslavia has been at work. By the
6 th of May the one remaining problem was
that of the demarcation of the line in the