Fat Tourists Smacked

Swarthy and reckless Signer Mario Carli, a young favorite of Il Duce, laid about him outrageously again, last week, in the lurid pages of his arch-Fascist Roman news sheet, L'Impero. Last fortnight Editor Carli outraged smart Italian women who slenderize themselves and refuse to have children by telling them (TIME, Jan. 21) that "such sweet egotists, such darling morsels of vanity, should be soundly smacked on every possible occasion!" Last week, even this ungallant bravado was eclipsed when Smacker Carli took a sounding wallop at tourists:

"So far as these fat drones are concerned, they are always more of a nuisance than a benefit, especially when they are poor and come in droves on organized tours. When they are rich they think all Italy is theirs without discussion. They put on airs. They think we are 'natives' who must flatter them and serve them, even though they pay with a bad grace. What Fascist cares a damn for tourists?

"Should Fascist Italy be transformed into a grand equestrian circus, with Fascists disguised as clowns, citizens as horses, and II Duce the ringmaster? No! Italy today is an incandescent workshop in which a new destiny is being forged for the construction, piece by piece, of her future, like a big, victorious cruiser.

"If tourists want to amuse themselves let them go to Paris, Vienna, Berlin or London, not to mention the other trans-Atlantic cities. We have no time for old-fashioned jazz or monotonous dancing girls. We do not want Italy to be like any sort of Paris."

Concluding furiously, Editor Carli hinted that it might be well to exclude tourists from Italy, and gloried in the fact that this would mean the closing of thousands of Italian hotels. "So much the better! Then our hotel keepers would invest their capital in Il Duce's land reclamation project, in our colonies, in scientific research, industries, and armaments!"