Solid Vote

Soundly trounced in the Senate, Italy's Communists and fellow-traveling Nenni Socialists turned to the Chamber of Deputies last week in their effort to choke the anti-Communist government of Mario Scelba with the tangled web of the Montesi case.

For the second time in six days, Scelba had to stand up, risk a confidence vote provoked chiefly by Communist charges that his regime had been obscuring corruption and shielding suspects in the strange death of Wilma Montesi (TIME, Feb. 15 et seq.). "My conscience is completely at ease," Scelba told the Chamber. "The government has nothing to fear and nothing to hide . . . I wish the whole country would at last realize it." The Chamber stood behind him on the vote, 294 to 264, one of the solidest victories he has recorded in eight months as Premier.