--3--                            
 
         relations between Great Britain and Italy.         
 
                                                            
 
 
But suddenly, in May 1939, Mussolini concluded a  
military alliance with Germany,and a few days afterwards,following bitter   
attacks against my activies as AMbassador to London and upon German   
request, I was recalled and appointed, without my previous knowledge,   
Minister for Justice and President of the Chamber of Deputies, both   
s being considered as having no influence on the Government 
 
                                                            
 
 
In the event, those offices proved to be of no little importance, as they   
gave me the opportunity of renewing once again from the juridical and the   
legal aspects my efforts in the defense of the Constitution, which Fascist   
dictatorship had in the meantime violated but not yet altogether obliterated  
. During my tenure of office (Mussolini got rid of me again in February   
1943), I availed myself many times, much to the irritation of the fascist   
"revolutionaries" and Miussolini himself, of the privilege of the Justice   
Minister to refuse to validate with the Seal of the State laws and decrees   
deemed inconsistent with the Constitution. The defence of the latter was   
in fact an essential premise for slopply preparing the ground for the   
restauration of our parliamentary system, and for the overthrow of the   
ill-fated dictatorship which had taken our country's political life in its   
iron grip and made prisoners of the whole Italian people. From that moment   
(June 1939), I slowly resumed the direction of the political group which   
ini and his gang had tried to disperse, during the previous 
 
                                                            
 
 
When in August 1939, Germany invaded Poland, my political friends and I   
did all in our power to prevent Italy's entry into the war on Germany's   
side, as was Mussolini's intention. At the cabinet meeting which approved   
Italy's  non-belligerency (September 1st, 1939), I demanded a public   
denunciation of our military alliance with Germany and a declaration of   
full neutrality, Mussolini refused and asked me not to interfere any   
longer with the Italian foreign policy. Nevertheless, during the nine   
months of our non-belligerency, I did all I could to keep Italy out of  
the war. The British statesmen with whom I was in touch encouraged me in   
my efforts; but in June 1940, Mussolini declared war without even   
informing the cabinet, whose members, with the only exception of the   
Foreign Minister Ciamo, learned it from the radio. He intended in that way   
to administer a final blow to our constitutional machinery. By means of   
the war Mussolini planned to get rid of monarchy and Constitution,   
installing in its place a permanent "de jure" dictatorship on the lines of   
German Nazism, as he is doing in North Italy, now that he is free at last   
                of his internal opposition.                 
 
                                                            
 
 
We were convinced that war meant ruin for our country both in the national   
and international fields. Not having been successful in preventing it, we   
believed that no means should be ignored in order to shorten it, and thus   
free Italy from the German alliance, taking advantage of any favorable   
opportunity. In the days preceding the 25th of July, there were no signs   
                of any popular or political                 
 
                           rising