are always in arrear, frequently by four or five months, in violation of the Royal decree, which provided for· immediate publication in the Official Gazette. Article 323 of the Law concerning Communes and Provinces lays down that the Government is to communicate a list of Communes dissolved every three months to the Senate and the Chamber, in order that they may have some control over the process. Instead of this, the Government communicated in November the list of Councils closed between January and April, and there is no official knowledge of what has happened since ! Apart from formal dissolution, there have been innumerable virtual dissolutions through the appointment of prefectoral Co~missioners. When asked as to the number of these, the Minister refused to reply; so concealing an illegal state of affairs, since the law permits dissolution only for definite practical reasons. The law requires that within three rr1onths of the dissolution of a Commune fresh elections shall be held ; only in exceptional cases is a period of six months allowed. Under the Fascist Government the exceptional has become the normal. Prorogations for six months have become habitual, and, in open violation of the law, have reached a year and more ; in Rome a Royal Commissioner has been placed in control for 22 months ! (b) Reasons for Dissolution. The law allows the dissolution of Councils only for grave reasons of public order, or for violation of the law. The Fascist Government is dissolving Councils simply because they are not Fascist, or are obnoxious to local Fascists. And public order is being protected not by the punishment of armed assault or intimidation of the municipal bodies, but by pursuing the legitimate administrators if they show resistance. Here are a few typical instances of the reasons advanced in the decrees dissolving Communes : BibliotecaGino Bianco
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