(b) Railways :An increase, less than 5 per cent., from 3,157 millions in 1921-22 to 3,299 millions in 1922-23 . . Nothing ren1arkable. IX.-JUSTICE. Amnesty? Under the de~ree of amnesty and pardon, No 1641 of December 22, 1922, full amnesty was granted for all crimes, without exception, even those carrying penal servitude (for example, homicide), to all those who had committed them for national ( !) ends, even i( only indirectly so, and even if not exclusively so ·but partlx (though not predominantly) for personal ends (Article 1). On the first occasion of the application of this decree there were, among cases precisely similar as regards the crime committed, citizens fully amnestied (Fascists) and citizens refused any benefit from the decree, or allowed only one year's remission of sentence (non-Fascists). As many criminal elements in the Fascist ranks had earlier convictions, the amnesty _was extended even to habitual criminals or those with former convictions ; exclusion from the benefit of the amnesty was confined to cases in which there were more than two convictions for the gravest crimes against persons or property. Not only that, but if the former convictions were for crimes committed ."for national ends", there was no exclusion even in these cases (Article 7) ! Thus, considering that, of the tens of thousands of cases of violence, homicide, arson and intimidation of which Fascists had been guilty, only q. fraction were denounced, and that of the few thousand cases denounced hardly more than a few hundreds of the gravest and most glaringly evident led to convictions, the amnesty ended in the absolution of all Fascist crimes, even the cruellest, the most horrible and most repugnant. Thus the amnesty was granted even to the persons charged with the assassination of the Deputy Di Vagno; even to those 49 Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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