Notes

In a speech at Naples, His Majesty Benito Mussolini said: "I am a servant of no master but the Nation. I ask no reward but my conscience. It is enough that I can look forward to a none too distant date when I can lay aside my task, strong in the knowledge that I have accomplished something useful."

By some, his words were interpreted as a prediction of his early resignation; others, knowing Benito a little better, discussed them as a mere gesture.

The Italian Government decided to repay $25,000,000 worth of bonds maturing in the U. S. next February. Surprise was expressed that the bonds should be paid off without recourse to fresh borrowing. An agent of the Banco di Roma was able to explain the mystery. "Italy's financial condition," said he, "is continually improving. The Kingdom would find no convenience in again resorting to the American market because there is plenty of money at home."

Man-eating wolves roam the central and southern provinces, according to information from Rome. During the past two months, several human beings have been devoured--a soldier returning from leave, at Palena; a woman, on a country road. At Vito, on the lower slope of Mt. Vesuvius, females of a church congregation were obliged to barricade themselves in the church while the men attacked a waiting pack of hungry lupines.

Crown Prince Umberto concluded his South American visit (TIME, Aug. 18, Sept. 15) with a brief but popular visit to Brazil. When last heard of, the warship San Giorgio was bearing him back to Benito's kingdom.

Amid the tumult of vivas for the King, the Constitution and Liberty, a Congress of Italian jurists at Turin passed the following resolution: "From this city, which was the cradle of Liberty, the Congress reaffirms the principle of the absolute liberty of the press."

A treaty of arbitration between Italy and Switzerland was signed by the representatives of both nations at Rome. A permanent conciliation commission is to decide all disputes, even when national honor is involved. If the decision of the commission be unacceptable to either country, the two nations pledge themselves to submit the dispute to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague.

Prince Gelasio Caetani, Italian Ambassador to the U. S., on a vacation in Italy, wishing to devote himself "to matters of land improvement, the administration of his estate and to studies from which public affairs had diverted his attention," pressed Benito to accept his resignation. Benito sadly gave his consent, but requested the Prince to continue in office until the new year. Prince Caetani will sail for the U. S. on Oct. 11.