Aventine Opposition

The week in Italy was quiet. There were attacks by the Communists on Fascisti, by Fascisti on Communists, in which the Socialists were also implicated either as aggressors or defenders. Bombs, bottles and knives were thrown, bullets were fired, whips cracked as did bludgeons over heads, blood flowed and angry cries rent the air. Yet all was comparatively quiet. It was that the Opposition press had been effectually gagged; that a hundred questionable politico-social clubs had been closed: that the urban and rural branches of the Italia Libera Association, of which General Peppino Garibaldi is head, were shut down; that a number of subversive organizations had been rooted out; that people had been terrified by many hundreds of domiciliary searches made by rowdy and violent Fascisti; that scores of cafes had been forced to close their doors; that hundreds of agitators, revolutionaries and other suspects had been hurled into jail. Benito Mussolini, Premier of Italy, had, as promised, pacified all Italy in 48 hours (TIME, Jan. 12). The Premier had kept his word. The strange noises which were heard were only the dull thuds and thumps of a political Opposition that had temporarily been put out of harm's way.

The Aventine* Opposition--group of about 150 Deputies of the Opposition which has boycotted the Chamber of Deputies since the Matteotti murder (TIME, June 23 et seq.)--seized a chance during this quietus to steal some of Benito's thunder.

The leaders of this group made strenuous efforts to induce ex-Premiers Orlando and Giolitti to join them in their boycott, but they were rebuffed; Signori Orlando and Giolitti declined to associate themselves with an illegal organization. The leaders went sorrowfully back to their Hill. Rumors were that the boycott was to be discontinued.

The Government thought to aid the Opposition in making up its mind about its next move. Accordingly, it was proposed in the Consulta to pay Deputies according to the number of sittings of the Chamber which they attended. (Incidentally the cost to the country of paying Deputies would be cut some 6,000,000 lire.) The object was, of course, to deprive the Aventine Deputies of the salaries which they are still drawing.

Next day, a grand session of the Opposition was held. They reaffirmed their position and, in a long and violent manifesto to the Italian people attacking the Government, made it clear that they had no intention of resuming their seats. The Italians, or the greater part of them, were not interested one way or the other in what the Opposition Deputies did or intended to do. They have, so to speak, lost caste.

* Classical name given to oppositional factions. Vide political clubs on the Aventine Hill during time of Cicero.