D’Annunzio and Fiume

Same speech delivered in the Chamber, 21st June 1921.

Hon. Mussolini. In the speech from the throne, the Alps which go down to the Brenner were spoken of. Now we wish to know if these Alps include Fiume or not. I deplore the fact that in this speech no notice was given to the action of Gabriele d’Annunzio and his legionaries—(Applause.)—without whom our boundaries to-day would be at Monte Maggiore instead of at the Nevoso. Such a reference would have been generous, as well as politically opportune.

I do not intend to enlarge upon the sacrifice of Dalmatia. My honourable friend Federzoni spoke very eloquently on the subject yesterday. But I was surprised when in that same speech from the throne it was affirmed that Zara must be the advance guard of Italy on the opposite shores, because Zara is crushed between the Slav sea and the Slav hinterland.

While upon the subject of the Adriatic, gentlemen, we Fascisti cannot forget, we who speak for the first time in this hall, the attitude that you adopted in the affair of Fiume. We cannot forget that you attacked Fiume; and that when on 28th December General Ferrario said that he could not suspend the order for the bombardment that would have levelled that town to the ground, that general and the Government that gave him the order compromised our national dignity more than a little. (Approval on the Right.)

You put a knife to the throat of Fiume, but you did not solve the problem. You sent a commander there with an amazing scheme for the formation of a Government, which was to accept the conditions agreed upon at Belgrade—accept, that is to say, the Consortium, which means the near, if not immediate, destruction of the port of Fiume. Because you are well aware that after the lapse of twelve years Porto Barro and the Delta ought to go to Yugoslavia, and you have already handed them over, because, if you had not done so, you would have been obliged to make statements which have not been made.