Peter's Pence

Having got the Premiers of France and Britain bogged in a deal to dismember Ethiopia, Premier Benito Mussolini blithely attempted last week to bog the Pope in a 20,000,000-mark deal on German Peter's Pence.

Adolf Hitler's drastic exchange curbs have blocked in the Fatherland this huge total of pious contributions by German Catholics during the recent Holy Year for the Papal fund known as "Peter's Pence." If the Catholic Church should be treated in Germany as many Nazi Pagans would like to treat it, these 20,000,000 marks may not only be blocked but permanently lost to Christendom.

With devastating frankness Il Duce conveyed to Il Papa the idea that if the Papacy will lend Italy the 20,000,000 marks Italy will lend the Papacy an equivalent sum in lire. This deal would solve the Pope's transfer problem, insure that the contributions of pious Germans reach their destination. Italy, with a 20,000,000-mark credit inside Germany, could then purchase much wholesome German goods and raw materials and thus ease the squeeze of Sanctions.

Could the Italian-born Holy Father in his compassion fail to yield to the Italian logic of this deal? In Berlin last week Italian diplomats went ahead in preliminary conversations with the Wilhelmstrasse and the German Bishops over details. From the German viewpoint it could mean the immediate spending, during a hard German winter, of 20,000,000 marks.

Buttering Chancellor Hitler judiciously last week, Premier Mussolini's personal newsorgan Il Popolo d'Italia brandished in everybody's face the very notion over which most persons of Peace & Goodwill were wringing their hands, namely, that if Italy gets Ethiopia, then Germany will eventually get back the colonies seized from her during the War by the Allies. Benito Mussolini, lumping Japan, Germany and Italy together as "unsatisfied peoples," declared that their needs constitute a problem which the League of Nations is unable to overcome and that "cannot be overcome without Italy!"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.