270 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
policy '. Three days later at the Naples congress a fascist
representative from Genoa said that in signing the pact the
executive had perpetrated c a colossal blunder which has
cut the ground from under our feet in the syndical as well
as in the political sphere '. The reaction was such that on
October 24 the Popolo f Italia declared that : ' It was a
question of an agreement in principle, drawn up with the
intention of making peace ', and that further agreements
should be made during the thirty days c to make the treaty
a really effective peacemaker'. ' We postpone/ added
the paper, c our comments and impressions for thirty
days/
Nothing in the text of the agreement warranted such an
interpretation. Article 5 was explicit; the promise made by
the executive of the Fascist Party to dissolve the fascist
c corporations' was subject to no condition. But Mussolini
was forced to trim his sails. The fascists, the uncompre-
hending mob, must be allowed their howl of complaint,
being unable, like Mussolini, to conceive of subordinating
everything to the plan for which he was feverishly working.
He had no doubt that the operation he had just carried out
was both opportune and useful, and his confidence was
justified. The advantages of the treaty were numerous and
important. On the eve of decisive events it bridged over the
difference between fascism and d'Annunzio, and made
Mussolini look like a peacemaker and a supporter of
d'Annunzio's political designs. By temporarily saving the
Federation of Maritime Workers from the fascist attack, he
led d'Annunzio to believe that the victory of fascism would
not mean the abolition of national syndicalism, and of the
c labour' idea which Mussolini himself had had in mind in
1919 and early in 1921, and which d? Annunzio still hankered
after. It flattered d'Annunzio to be able to show what his
protection was worth, while on the other hand he felt
rather in the debt of Mussolini, whose personal intervention
had been decisive. On October 20 he ordered the
demobilization of his legionaries, whom he had summoned
to Fiume a week earlier.1 It is true that it was announced
in the press on October 21 that he would speak in Rome on
1 P. 268.