"Great Cordiality"

When Italy's Premier Giuseppe Pella took office four months ago, he said that he expected only to fill a summer interlude with an interim government. But once in office, his prestige grew rapidly, and he looked like the man Italy needed in this period. Last week he faced his most serious difficulty--dissension in his own party, the Christian Democrats. He decided to force the issue. He announced that he would resign unless he could count on the complete support of his party. Then he sent for his car and asked to be driven to the home of his old friend, ex-Premier Alcide de Gasperi, who is the party's general secretary and is still considered its No. 1 man.

They talked for two hours. Premier Pella was highly disturbed by three recent events:

P: In a speech at Novara, Mario Scelba, the tough and capable Interior Minister in the De Gasperi Cabinet, had castigated the Pella government for not being tougher with the Communists. "We must have no more of this resignation," Scelba cried. "The government's duty is to lead the struggle."

P: In a threatened strike of civil-service workers against the government, the Christian Democratic directorate, chairmanned by De Gasperi, had indicated that it would take no sides.

P: In a published article, De Gasperi had written: "We must shake off our indolence and sense of depression . . . The lack of a solid majority has so far compelled this government, no matter how friendly, to ask for support from both the opportunist Right and the demagogic Left." Aside from the specific criticism, what angered Pella was the word "friendly," which seemed to indicate that De Gasperi did not really regard it as a Christian Democratic government.

Afterwards, it was announced that De Gasperi and Pella had talked with "great cordiality." De Gasperi assured Pella that he was behind his government. Next day De Gasperi called the party directorate together to pledge "mutual trust and collaboration." The crack had been papered over. Now the question is whether Pella and De Gasperi can together work out a genuine center coalition, with allies that are neither too far to left or right, and thereby end the recent confusion.

Pella showed great political skill in moving in first for a showdown with his own party; for neither De Gasperi nor the heads of other factions in the party were ready for Pella to fall. This week Pella called in newspapermen and confidently announced that the "transition government" phase was over; in the new year he would set up a new kind of government with new men, pledged to 1) better distribution of wealth; 2) better housing; 3) defense of the state; 4) working toward "truly international solidarity."

"I fully understand," said Pella, "that the party, having given the government its confidence, is entitled to look over and evaluate not only the government's program but also the men who direct it ... It is important for a politician to know how to tiptoe into public life and also how to tiptoe out of it when necessary. I am prepared to do just that."

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