Job for the Caretaker

Italy had a new Premier last Week. Sandy-haired Giuseppe Pella, the Piedmontese peasant's son (TIME, Aug. 24) who became Italy's firm-money Finance Minister after the war, did what his old boss, Alcide de Gasperi, was unable to do. He got the benevolent neutrality of Sara-gat's Socialists on the left and the monarchists' votes on the right, and thus won for his government a vote of confidence in the Senate and a surprising 100-vote majority in the Lower House. Pella insisted that his ambitions were modest: to run a quiet caretaker government until the budget was passed.

But events refused to stay quiet. The Yugoslav news agency announced that, because of "the unconstructive attitude of Rome," Tito's government was in a mood to do something about Trieste. This might mean that Tito plans to annex the Yugoslav-occupied Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste, in which Italy has staked out sizable claims.

Pella canceled plans for a vacation, summoned the diplomatic representatives of the U.S., Britain and France to tell them that Italy would not "stand idly by." Next, Pella, who is his own Foreign Minister, fired off a note to Belgrade warning against any "ill-considered and irresponsible act." Italy alerted all its troops on the Yugoslav frontier and canceled all furloughs. Yugoslavia announced nervously that it really has no mischievous designs on Trieste.

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