FASCIST ITALY [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] 'Sue—Mr. Harold
E. Goad does not yet believe that my wife " was ever arrested," I surmise he will never believe what the Fascist Government forbids its flatterers to believe.
I declare myself ready to lay down before you indisputable proof of my statements
" that Mrs. Rosselli was arrested in Courmayeur on July 31st ; that she was brought to Aosta, kept there in prison for one night and one day together with common criminals ; that under urgent appeals from my mother, she was allowed to stay in a hotel of Aosta under strict police surveillance ; and that she was released on August 14th, after the English Press had unanimously made its protest against the system of hostages."
Will Mr. Goad accept my challenge, since he steps into the shoes of the Italian Ambassador in London in denying those facti ?
If I open the Chambers! Encyclopaedia (ed. 1927) at the word " Siberia " I read that
" The hot summer and a cloudless bright sky favours vegetation, and melons are grown in the open air on the steppes of Minusinsi (the internment place under the Tsarist regime). . . . Wheat and also corn, oats, barley, are grown fairly extensively. . . . Hunting, fishing, minerals. . . ."
Would Mr. Goad like to be interned in Siberia, since melons are grown there in the open air, and since there are wheat, barley, minerals . . ?
• Would Mr. Goad like to be interned in Lipari, since there are there grapes, figs, olives . . . ? If he were my brother, would he like to be sent either to Lipari or to Siberia to take my place there, just as happened to my brother, Dr. Nello Rosselli, after I escaped ? Would he like to be obliged for five years never to leave an area of less than a square mile, living in daily touch with common criminals ? And this only on account of the fact that he is my brother ?
If Mr. Goad is willing to take the place of my brother in Ustica, we might arrange things without great difficulty. This indeed would " open new springs of friendship between the British and the Italian peoples."—I am, Sir, &c., CARLO ROSSELLI.
Hotel de la Maison Doree, 66 Boul. Barbes, Paris (18).
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