Murder?

One evening in Rome, a man carrying a large portfolio sauntered along the Tiber embankment. A closed car drove up, out jumped two men, the man was seized, thrust into the car, driven off at high speed, while the three men struggled inside. Some time later an agitated Signora noticed that her husband had been long absent. Alarm was raised; search parties organized; all to no purpose. Deputy Giacomo Matteotti, multimillionaire Socialist, husband of the distressed Signora, was missing. It was presumed that he was the man seized on the bank of the Tiber.

It so happened that Signor Matteotti had with him, when last seen, documents he intended to use in a speech against the Government. A hue and cry was raised by the people and by the Opposition press against the Minister and against the Government. It was hinted that Deputy Matteotti had been murdered at the instigation of certain members of Mussolini's Cabinet. Benito Mussolini, pale but confident, made the following statement to the Chamber:

"If there is any one in this hall who has the right to be horrified and exasperated it is I, myself. Only an enemy of mine who had sat up at night to devise diabolical schemes against me could have carried out this crime which fills us all with loathing and disgust."

Minister Finzi and Commandatore Cesare Rossi, both personal friends of Benito, resigned, stating that they wished to be free to defend themselves against "libelous attacks of their enemies." Editor Filippo Filippelli of the Corriere Italiano, Fascist organ was arrested shortly after he escaped from Rome. It was known that Finzi was the moving spirit of the Corriere Italiano. There followed the arrest of 17 more Fascisti. The Opposition fulminated against the Government, declared that Finzi was a grafter.

The whole country was stirred and it was openly avowed that Fascismo itself was at stake. No attack was made on Benito, but it was made plain that vigorous action on his part was necessary if the country were to continue to have confidence in him. To a delegation of Deputies he promised justice no matter how exalted the rank of the murderer or murderers might be.

Signora Matteotti called upon the Premier: "Excellency," said she, "do you give me my husband's body so he may have an honorable burial ?"

Replied Benito: "I should like, indeed, to give you back your husband alive. There is yet hope."

The Opposition and those people abroad ever ready to find an excuse to attack the Fascisti were loud in their indignation and much political capital was 'being manufactured in Italy.

No trace of Matteotti could be found.