during the course of my short stay in Italy, I had the opportunity of a number of conversations with leading Italian socialists. I talked with Carlo Meara in Milan, and Giolitti in Rome. Both of them were impressed with New Left Review, and showed a great interest in the development of the New Left Clubs.

Some of my most fruitful discussion centred on the question of Unilateralism, NATO, Soviet policy and Active Neutrality. I talked particularly to members of the PSI (the Nenni Socialists) on Nenni’s apparent retreat on the question of NATO. DeMartina, who is Assistant General Secretary of the PSI, said that he felt that the policy of the British Left on the question of NATO was the correct one. Others, including the wife of Gateano Arfi, Editor of Mondo Operio, said that Nenni was silent on the question of NATO largely for tactical reasons. Others said that the question of NATO was not so important for Italy as it was for Britain, and that the main task of the PSI was to create a working unity with the Social Democrats (the SPD) and the left wing of the Christian-Democrats, so that an agreed policy of social and economic reform could be carried through to offset the pro-fascists on the one hand, and the Italian Communist Party on the other. The position in the Nenni Party is certainly complicated by the existence of at least two groups—an “autonomous” group, wanting democratic socialism free from both the Soviet and the American embrace, and a “pro-Stalinist” group, anxious for an allignment with the Italian CP. Naturally, it is the former group which is more favourable to a policy of Active Neutrality.