228	THE   RISE   OF   ITALIAN   FASCISM
Pavia and Cremona, under the command of Farinacci,
and with a column of forty lorries. While shots were
fired into the air to distract the attention of the state
forces, the squads climbed the gates, got into the premises
and attacked the staff with bombs and rifles. The
defenders switched an electric current through barbed-
wire, which had been prepared in advance, and electro-
cuted Emilio Tonoli ; while Cesare Melloni was blown
up by a bomb. But finally the fire took hold, destroying
the paper-stores and ruining the building/
Eight fascists were wounded.
c In the Via Canonica another fascist was wounded by
the rebels, a battle started and the communist club was
sacked. The state forces were brought into action, but
the resistance offered by this rebel district was extra-
ordinary. Armoured cars had to be resorted to, bombs
were thrown,, and two were killed and several seriously
wounded.'
During the fascist occupation the police made 600 arrests,
exclusively among the workers and the c rebels \ Mussolini
was in Rome, where on August 2 he was holding a con-
ference on c the imperial task of fascism', and he did not
conceal his delight. As some newspapers had reported that
he disapproved of the violence and crimes of the fascists in
Milan, he sent the fascists a message of support : c The acts
of reprisal you have carried out have my entire approval.
The Rome newspapers which have referred to an alleged
disobedience of my orders should realize that if I had been
in Milan I should have seen to it that reprisals were on a much
bigger scale/
Although they won in Milan the fascists failed to gain
Parma, which remained a thorn in the side of Po valley
fascism until the eve of the march on Rome. It was Italo
Balbo once again who decided to take the opportunity of
finally destroying this island • of anti-fascist resistance. The
working-class movement in Parma was peculiarly situated.
Before the war the city had been the Mecca of revolutionary
syndicalism. Its Chambers of Labour had been led by