Italy's Finances The fact that the Italian harvest has been
poor, and that Italy is buying wheat from Canada, as well as from .various. European countries, is significant, for such purchases mean a considerable drain on the country's exiguous stock of foreign exchange. Italy's real financial situation remains deliberately undisclosed, but the shifts to which Signor Mussolini is being put to get some form of foreign loan are an instructive indication of his need. Abyssinia has been conquered, but the bill for the campaign has still to be met—and the cost of settling colonists in the conquered country will be immense, as the experience of every colonising country proves. Wages are being compulsorily raised in many trades ; that must inevitably be reflected in a rise in prices, and the old familiar chase of prices and wages round the _circle will soon be in full progress. Little has been heard of the bonds which Italy was trying a month ago to get taken up abroad. Now, since she is debarred by the Johnson Act from raising money in the United States while her war-debt to that country is still unpaid, a strange report has gained currency that she will offer to pay the debt (out of her depleted gold reserve ?) in order to be free to borrow in Wall Street. - The prospect of success can hardly be considered bright.
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