| Chapter 1: | Italy from the American Immigration Quota Act of 1921 to Mussolini’s Policy of Grossraum, 1921–1924 |
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The Italian government, through the Emigration Bureau, had to look everywhere to place as many workers as possible, even attempting to send emigrants to Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and the rest of South America. Brazil, which already had a generous immigration policy, agreed to accept many more Italian workers. Regulations issued by Paratore prevented emigrants from making their own choice about their destination. He also instructed the Bureau to overlook a country’s sanitary, social, and juridical conditions.
By September 1922, Italy badly needed the safety valve of emigration, which would have relieved the tense economic situation, solved the problems of unemployment, and alleviated class hatred. At that time Italy’s internal deficit totaled 112,025,700,000 lire, while the debt to foreign countries had soared to 21,245,000,000 lire in gold, ten times higher than Italy’s prewar debt. As he had outlined in his previous report to Luigi Facta, and a month later, in the early days of October, Paratore warned the prime minister by telegram: “Dear Facta, I urge you to convoke the Commission of Emigration and Unemployment: winter is at hand. Yours, Paratore.”18
In response, on October 9, 1922, Facta sent a telegram to the ministers of finance, labor, industry, agriculture, and liberated lands that read as follows: “Please come tomorrow, Tuesday, at 4:00 p.m. to the first meeting of the Committee for the Study of the Problems of Emigration, which will be held at the Palace of the Prime Minister. Facta.”19
There is no record that the meetings took place on that date. A letter from De Michelis to Facta referred to an Emigration Committee Meeting scheduled for October 28, but due to the sudden development of political events, that meeting was indefinitely postponed. “I was notified by His Excellency Carlo Schanzer,” De Michelis wrote, “that tomorrow I should have participated in the first meeting of the Interministerial Committee for Emigration, which was formed in one of the last sessions of the Council of the Ministers. But I was just informed that the meeting would not take place at the present.”20
On October 30, 1922, Victor Emmanuel III, king of Italy, appointed Benito Mussolini prime minister and minister of internal affairs. Up to this point, Mussolini had held no governmental positions.