Page:Giuseppe Bianchini - The Work of the Fascist Government and the Economic Reconstruction of Italy - tr. Luigi Villari.pdf/30

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millions in 1922–23, and according to the estimates will be balanced in 1924–25.

Who remembers now—and it is regrettable that it should be so soon forgotten—the disorganization of these services, the insubordination of the personnel, the disastrous losses suffered by the Treasury and the country? How has it been possible to achieve these results if the staff is the same? By means of a very simple recipe: discipline. The agitators and the politicians have been got rid of, the authority of the chiefs has been re-established, the staff have been made to feel that they must carry ont their duties with loyalty and diligence, and that the Minister is their chief and not their servant.

While this was being accomplished, other grave problems of an international character had to be faced: from the thorny Fiume problem, which was finally settled with the annexation of the town to Italy, to the Corfu incident, which was not without its use in proving that Italy refused to be brow-beaten or intimidated; from the complicated liquidation of Italy's relations with the Austro-Hungarian succession States to our vigilant par-