Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.ITALY: Waste Not, Greet Not
A pre-Christmas communiqué lay ready for signing, last week, on the massive desk of Signor Benito Mussolini. With logic, reason and curt common sense he was about to strike at a custom that is old, endearing, hallowed. Dipping a pen in ink, Il Duce dashed his scrawly autograph upon the document: a command to all Italians that they must not send to him any form of Christmas or New Year's greeting.
Lest persons anxious to gain even his disapproving notice should persist in sending greetings, Signor Mussolini informed the Fascist press that...
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