Evening star., 1927-08-30
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

About the only thing that Signor
Mussolini can't do IS to Strauule'
He never does things by halves. Wneh
he SAYS there will be no Communism
in Italv-well. there is no more any
Communism there. There have been
outbreaks of Communists In every
country in Europe and IN seVeral oI
America-Central and Soutn-Dut none
in the land where Sacco and Nanzettl
were born; not a single disturbance
not a single reflection upon the Justlce
of the United States courts. Some oi
the Italian papers have commenueu
the act of justice in executing the
laws against murder. The execution
had no connection whatever with the
"proletarian" conflict with capital,
and certainly there was no preJudlce
against the murderers because theF
chanced to be Italian, nor against
Italians because they were OF the
same race as the two murderers-
All the above remarks are N
spired by the answer received at me
Italian embassy, yesterday, when the
query was propounded as to what was
the present public sentiment IN ltaly
toward Americans who visited the
land.
When. however. the next query was
proposed, what is the actuai lnter'
nretation of the new decree regarding
Italy's jurisdiction over tallans anu anu
even foreigners who commit offenses
against the Italian State, outside Oh
the territory of Italy," the response
was not quite so direct, for the ofhclal
report of that new decree had not
reached the embassy. All that was
known of it was in the newspapers,
and that might not be authentic. NO
comments. therefore, could be maze
m the embassy. Besides, the Ambassa-
dor was out of the city. Sorry Tor
the new decree appears quite sensa-
tional.
Not all the decree has been .cabled'
but here are extracts:
"Article G. ANY citizen or foreigner
who commits. on foreign territory, one
of the following list of crimes is pun
ishable according to the Italian law:
First. crimes against personality OF
the state: second, crime in counter
feiting the seal of the state; third. the
Justification of money legally used III
the territory of the state or any stamp
of Italian public credit; fourth, crimes
committed with explosives or materl-
phyxiating gases. against Italian citl-
zens; fifth. crimes against individual
Italian persons; sixth. crimes which
are slavery or against minors, COM
mitted by italian citizens; seventh
crimes committed by public officials IN
the service of the state; eighth, every
other crime committed on foreign ter
ritory by a citizen or foreigner where
fore special dispositions of the law or
international convention have been es-
tablished in applicability of the Italian
law.
article 7. Political crimes commit
ted abroad-Any citizen or foreigner
who. on foreign territory, commits
political crime differing from those in
dicated by the first section OF the pre-
ceding article is to be punished accord
ing to the italian law. AS far as the
present dispositions, whatever crime
offends the right or political interests
of a citizen is considered political
crime. Any common crme actuated in
the whole or part by political or social
motives is considered political crime.
Penalties for any one of these crimes
range from the confiscation of prop
erty and Imprisonment for one year,
graduating according to the gravity
OIL IIlo CIUIIC, " lILC iiIpA uAAN
death.
Article 10 provides that foreigners
who have committed crime on foreign
territory may be retired by the italian
courts even if they had been tried and
acquitted or convicted and served SEN
tences in the country where the crime
had been committed.
i X X y
The United States went to war with
Great Britain in 1912 because the Brit
ish undertook to invade American jul
risdiction and make laws of England
apply to territory of America.
All naturalized Italians are not in
harmony with Fascism. and. being
here as citizens of the United States,
they feel free to oppose the govern
ment of their fatherland as they see
fit. Some day some such naturalized
are going to make trouble
for our State Department. when after
they have held meetings and made
speeches criticizing some. decree of the
Italian government they find them
selves heirs to property left them by
relatives still in Italy confiscated by
the Italian government, or when they
go with an American passport certi-
flying them as Americans by adoption,