complete transfer (trapasso netto e preciso) to private control is a political and economic necessity.'' But four days later the High Commissioner corrected the report : ''The scheme is merely one for the eventual leasing of the secondary lines.'' (March 19.) An official communication on March 23 announced that the Council of Ministers had approved a contract for the leasing of certain lines to the Lombardy and Emilia Raihvay Company. Next, on April 3, a Fascist, Signor Farinacci,. of Cremona, intervened. The Commissioner, he said, and the Director-General of Railways knew nothing of the plans for leasing. ("Cremona Nuova," April 3.) And Mussolini telegraphed to Farinacci, April 4 : '' I have given orders for the suspension of the execution of the agreement to lease railways of Cremona, despite the signature already affixed.'' A final official communication announced on April 7 that the Council ·.of Ministers had decided to "re-examine" the que.stion and "co-ordinate it with the general plan of the leasing of the whole system.'' And there the matter still rests ! VIII.-PosTAL AND ELECTRICAL SERVICES. . (i) 1'he State telephone service had been bought at a fabulous ransom from private individuals who had been making a ruinous loss and had let the plant go to pieces. During the war the supply of fresh instruments had been suspended. After the war the service was reorganised, and 50,000 subscribers were transferred to an automatic exchange, furnished w.ith instruments received from Germany on reparation account. Under decree No. 399 of February 8, 1923, negotiations began for leasing the system to private enter-- prise, with the certainty that only the best services would be taken over, and the less remunerative zones 47 Biblioteca Gino Bianco 7
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