ITALY: Volpi’s Commission

For once the Fascist Government and its bitterest opponents were in accord. All Italy joined in showering farewells and good wishes upon the twelve Italians who are to negotiate the funding of their country’s 50 billion lire ($2,000,000,000,) War debt to the U. S., under the leadership of Count Giuseppe Volpi* di Misurata, Minister of Finance.

As the Commission embarked at Naples aboard the Duilio, Italians considered it a good omen that Count Volpi is, strangely enough, “a self-made business man.” His title was conferred upon him by King Vittorio Emanuele as a reward for his highly successful governorship of Misurata in Italian Tripoli. And it is well known that as a boy he was obliged to earn his own living as the result of financial reverses which had befallen his family.

While still in his teens he commenced to build up the great chain of establishments trading between Italy and the Near East, which have given him wealth, power and the opportunity to devote himself brilliantly to affairs of state. His rise to diplomatic prominence cama when Premier Giolitti called upon him, as an authority in Near Easternaffairs, to negotiate the peace treaty which followed the Italo-Turkish War in Tripoli (1911-12). And since then his success as Governor of Tripoli, and later as Finance Minister, has endeared him greatly to the House of Savoy and set him high in Fascist councils. Such was the suave oval-faced Italian, with level brows and a scrubby Van Dyck beard, who set sail with his Countess to talk of Italian debts upon an Italian-discovered continent.

At Rome there had been farewells pregnant with import and seasoned with emotion. Count Volpi was closeted secretly with Benito Mussolini just before his departure. And the whole Cabinet except Mussolini, assembled at the station to see him off. There was kissing. There were cries of “Viva Volpi! Viva Italia!”

In accordance with Fascismo’s policy of utter secrecy, the final Italian debt terms were withheld by Count Volpi even from the members of his own commission up to the time of sailing. Correspondents, eager for an official announcement, were ingeniously informed that “Count Volpi owes it to the American Debt Commission, as an act of deference, to inform it of Italy’s proposals by word of mouth instead of through the medium of the press.”

Unofficially, however, the Count unbent as follows: “I am never either optimistic or pessimistic where business deals are concerned. I am a business man going to America to talk business. . . .

“I would not be starting if I did not think there was a possibility of coming to an understanding. . . . “Italy should not feel humiliated or fretful over my mission to America. There is nothing humiliating in paying one’s debts, and America is quite within her rights in expecting us to pay as much as we can of what we owe her. If Italy acted otherwise she would not be living up to her reputation for square dealing.”

*Count Volpi’s name is cognate with the Italian word “volpe”, which means fox, cunning person, foxy person.