Today -100: December 18, 1924: We know we do not belong to a gang of murderers

German President Friedrich Ebert asks Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann to form a government. Stresemann quickly fails to do so, as the Catholic Zentrum party refuses to sit in a Cabinet with extreme Nationalists, who they think would sabotage the Dawes Plan. Which they totally would.

The Fascist vice president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Francesco Giunta, offers to resign to face criminal charges for ordering the beating of a Fascist dissident. I doubt Giunta seriously intended resigning, but that may just be me being cynical about fucking Fascists. Anyway, Fascist deputies vote to refuse to accept the resignation or, as they put it, to allow the “Fascist revolution to be put on trial.” Sez one deputy, “we know we do not belong to a gang of murderers.” Which seems like the sort of thing you only have to say out loud if you belong to a gang of murderers. One Fascist deputy resigns in protest and far-right former prime minister Antonio Salandra (1914-16) votes no and storms out, returning later. One deputy challenges another to a duel, as was the custom. (Spoiler Alert: In March, the Chamber will refuse to allow Milan magistrates to prosecute Giunta).

Moscow denies that there were any riots about Trotsky’s exile, and indeed denies that Trotsky has left Moscow, although possibly just because he’s too ill to be moved.

Phone connections are made between London and Berlin for the first time.

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