Page:William Z. Foster - The Revolutionary Crisis of 1918-1921 (1921).djvu/47



presidency of Hon. Enrico De Nicola, president of the Chamber of Deputies—the representatives of the National Council of the Fascisti, the Fascisti Parliamentary group, the Socialist Party Executive Committee, the Socialist Parliamentary group, and the General Confederation of Labor.

There were also invited: The leader of the Communist Parliamentary group, the representatives of the People's Party Parliamentary group, and the Republican Deputies. The leader of the Communist Parliamentary group stated verbally to the president of the Chamber that the Communist Parliamentary group, in conformity and in harmony with the declarations published by the Executive Committee of the Italian Communist Party, would not participate in the conference. The representatives of the People's Party Parliamentary group, Hon. De Gasperi and Cingolani, responded thanking us for the invitation and expressing wishes that the result of the conference would be the much desired pacification. But they felt that the intervention of parties which do not find themselves in the same situation and the same struggle as the contestants might diminish the value of the agreement that was to be concluded between the two parties at issue. The group preferred to renounce its claim to official recognition, and to contribute to the success of the noble purposes of the President by persevering, in the Chamber and out of it, in its attitude of rigid legality and impartiality towards the social forces. For the Republican Deputies the Hons. Chiesa, Mazzolani, Conti, and Macrelli, replied, likewise thanking us and expressing fervid hopes for the pacification so necessary for the welfare of our country, but stating their belief that the intervention of the Republican Party would be inopportune because it has tried to remain neutral in the unfortunate contests between the factions, even when its own organizations suffered heavily.

1. It is understood that there is here reproduced and confirmed the official communication of the 28th of July, which settled a question raised by the Fascisti regarding the relations between the Socialist Party and the Communist Party.

2. The five bodies here represented agree to so