296 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
behind it lay the fact that the fascist leaders accepted it in
principle, on condition that Mussolini agreed, which they
had no doubt of his doing. According to an article by Gio-
vanni Marinelli, the administrative secretary of the National
Fascist Party and treasurer of the march on Rome, the
majority of the fascist chiefs wanted to accept Salandra's
proposal. He described later how the negotiations were
broken off:
6 At ii p.m. on the 28th, after the final conversations
at the Quirinal in which Salandra, De Vecchi and others
had taken part, there was a further meeting at the Rome
office of the Resto del Carlino at which De Vecchi, Marinelli,
Grandi, Postiglione and Polverelli were present. After
a level-headed discussion of past events, of the negotia-
tions they had just been engaged in, and of their intentions
for the future, they decided with surprising forbearance
in favour of a Salandra-Mussolini coalition. The present
writer and Postiglione were entrusted with the unpleasant
task of describing this difficult business over the telephone
to the Duce. We did so with the feeling that the result
would be something very different. We entered the almost
deserted Viminal at one in the morning. We went up
to the office of the Minister of the Interior. Taddei was
nowhere to be found, and we saw only the under-secretary,
Fumarola, and the permanent under-secretary. Our
coming surprised and alarmed them, but they allowed us
to get through to Milan, which was the object of our
visit. Postiglione, as soon as he was connected with the
Duce, read out the details of the suggested coalition.
Mussolini listened without interrupting, and when it was
finished, after asking if there was anything further to say,
replied : " It was not worth while mobilizing the fascist
army, causing a revolution, killing people, for the sake
of a Salandra-Mussolini solution and four portfolios. 1
will not accept.5' And we heard the click as he hung up
the receiver. Deeply moved we reported the Duce's
refusal to De Vecchi, who was waiting for us at the
Moderno hotel/1
1 According to one account Mussolini was in two minds over his friends'
offer, when the deputy, Aldo Finzi, who was with him in Milan, snatched the