Italians Seek Tariff Wall for Literature

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 561, 14 January 1929, Page 14

Italians Seek Tariff Wall for Literature

Authors Complain of Foreign Translations MUSSOLINI APPROACHED Complaining that Italy is over- j stocked with translations o£ foreign i writers to the detriment of Italians, a | group of Italian authors known as I “Strapaese” is advocating a limitation on the number of books written by j foreigners which may be circulated in j their country. As a result of their complaint, it is said that a commission may soon be appointed in Rome or j some other city for the purpose of con- 1 sidering measures of protection. The j "Strapaese” have in mind a sort of [ tariff wall through which only a quota i of books by foreign authors may be j admitted. | Their appeal to Premier Mussolini i | is believed to have been well timed, i j for the Premier has announced that j ! the Fascist idea of struggle between j nations does not apply only to the j material, to such things as economics and concessions in politics; it should apply, says II Duce, to the mind and soul of a people as well. The authors believe that books are as important as banks and boats in a scheme for a new Italian Renaissance, and they believe they will get a sympathetic hearing at Rome. The petitioners disclaim that they have in mind only to line their pockets with increased royalties. They are thinking, they say, in terms of a greater Italy; they say that in order to be great a nation must have a great literature. Italy has placed, so they contend, too great a value on all foreign literature; and now a commission is needed to sift out the good from the bad, to save Italy from invasion by unworthy books. Protection for “Arts” In their argument for a selective tariffff the discontented writers are backed by an opinion that protection for Italian literature would not bo inconsistent with a general policy of protection for other Italian arts, though there are some Italians who do not wholly approve the proposed policy toward books. If, argue the Italian writers, the government can, as it does, forbid the removal of an old chair from Italy, it can and ought to forbid the entrance into Italy of undesirable books, especially since wholesale book importations interfere with the style and income of Italian writers. Persons who have objected to the plan are principally booksellers, but they contend that they represent a great public which prefers foreign books to Italian —not because of the nationality of the authors, but because the foreign writers more nearly give it what it wants. Young Italy reads Wild West and blood-and-thun-der stories by the thousand. Fascism is built around the young, and the rising generation will object, it is said, if it is deprived of its thrillers. There are, too. some foreign writers who are favourites in Italy; and if they are admitted to Italy on the proposed quota of two foreign books to every ten Italian placed in circulation, the booksellers fear for their business. A question raised by the booksellers is where the Italian books will come from. Italian authors who hare achieved popularity are not many. There are Pirandello and d’Annunzio, of course. But it is said that other Italian writers who are making a living by their work may almost be counted on the fingers of one hand. There are notably six—Befielii. Grazia Deledda, Guido da Verona, Ferraro, Zuccoll and Papini. They are in competition with Shaw, Kipling, Conrad and Galsworthy, not to mention Anita Loos and Edgar Wallace and P. G. Wodehouse.