RETURN TO ITALY
By STEPHEN HEARST
"THE musicians may change," says an Italian proverb, " but the music remains the same." And having just paid a return visit to Italy after some war-time service there, I cannot honestly say that the new republic has produced any startlingly new tunes. The people are desperately poor ; the Government is honest but ineffective, and nobody would be very surprised if the bottom dropped out altogether. So people cling on to the sides as best they can and "arrange" their livelihood.
There are, it is true, several millions of unemployed. These present themselves once a week at their local labour exchanges with their cards, draw their unemployment assistance—which is insuffi- cient for one decent meal—and proceed to supplement this allow- ance by a multitude of activites which in their sum total amount to a secondary distributive system known as the "free market." The streets of all major towns are filled with cigarette-vendors who sell British and American cigarettes at approximately 300 lire a packet. The official exchange rate for the pound is still 900 lire, but unofficially the rate fluctuates between 1,400 and 1,800 lire. The abundance of American cigarettes is easier to explain than that of the British, and it remains to be seen what effect President Truman's order forbidding the export of duty-free cigarettes to American soldiers overseas will have on a flourishing trade. British service rations are much too small to put any great temptation in the way of the British soldier ; but I have heard that a great many
cigarettes come front Malta and are exchanged by fishing-boats for fish and other comestibles.
Petrol is also easily obtainable. The official ration is exceedingly small, but not even an "under the counter" look is required for its purchase at any petrol-pump or along the main roads that lead out of the cities. Here Nero's thumb-signs have come back into circu- lation. Thumbs up means begging for a lift ; thumbs down is an offer for petrol. Such open-market petrol is not officially presumed to exist, because the Government might as well save its face where it knows that its interference would show no results whatever. No longer is the Emperor walking uncertainly without clothes among his admiring people ; he now romps composedly around without as much as noticing any people at all. Here is, in fact, a Hans Andersen version with a Latin, slant. Orthodox class divisions no longer operate in such a society. If your daily activities are con- nected with the production or distribution of a commodity that is in urgent demand you can look upon yourself as a number of the new upper class ; but if you are a teacher or Civil Servant or railway- man and draw a regular monthly wage which is based on pre-war rates of pay your rung on the social ladder is low indeed. Those among the latter category who belong to recognised trade unions can at least press for wage increases, but such a course is not open to members of the former middle classes who are engaged in the liberal professions, and it is precisely they from whom the lead for national resurgence in an ill-educated country is most likely to come that are worst hit and can barely keep alive.
A friend of mine who teaches at the Accademia Delle Belle Arte at Florence and is himself a well-known engraver receives a monthly salary of 12,000 lire. There are few unskilled labourers who would accept employment for such a remuneration. He would not tell me how he manages on such a pittance, but I feel that a splendid collection of prints of which he was very proud has long found its way into other hands. Gianini's Common Man Party, openly accused of Fascist tendencies by many of the other parties, has in fact found most of its supporters among the fixed-salary class. What Gianini stands for is difficult to say ; he is against Russia for her supposed Communist penetration of the country, against Britain because of her disposal of the Italian Fleet and Italian colonies and against the United States for her dollar diplomacy. But his slogans are incisive and summarise cleverly, if unhelpfully, the general malaise of the people. " Si stava meglio quando si stava peggio" (we were better off when we were worse off) is an example, quoted widely in Florence and Rome.
But Italians are not given to the philosophic despair that char- acterises their hated former allies. Theirs is a country of unlimited impossibilities, and theirs a landscape too radiant to banish hope for long. Hopeful signs are indeed not lacking. Commercial agree- ments with Switzerland and France were signed last year ; a similar agreement with Britain may shortly be completed. Furthel emigra- tion has become a practical possibility. Argentina is the first South American State to open its doors to immigrants, and others may follow to help relieve the problem of Italy's surplus population. South Africa, too, is setting up an emigration office in Italy, and many Italians, particularly ex-prisoners of war recently interned in the Union, are anxious to settle there. Negotiations between France and Italy concerning Italian emigration have not yet reached the executive stage ; but thousands of would-be Italian settlers, often under conditions of extreme hardship, have already crossed over the mountains into France, and more are following daily. Never, perhaps, has illegal migration been more wholeheartedly approved by two governments ; yet what a commentary on an outmoded theory of stale sovereignty this trek is!
However much there is to praise, however much to condemn, even the most determined efforts of this hardworking and industrious people will not by themselves suffice to bring more than amodieum of prosperity to Italy. Only the continued help of the United States and Britain in the form of foams, imports of raw materials and food, and of the South American republics as settlement areas for Italy's surplus population will put the country back on her feet again. She has perhaps done better than could have been hoped in 1943, and though her crutches creak a great deal they support a•lovable, smiling, undaunted patient.
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