Page 196 - Rassegna 2021-3

OSSERVATORIO INTERNAZIONALE

It is Bigongiari, as anticipated, who grasps the real scope of the military
intervention, as a corollary of the Trust Administration, since, in fact, “the
Security Corps of Somalia, even if a military unit, was going to perform a civi-
lization task understood in its more genuine meaning (…) CSS was the respon-
se to a new role of “state-builder” assigned to Italy, which qualified a respon-
sibility in leadership and training”.
But a confirmation of the preparation and the choice of the larger ini-
tial dimensions of the contingent that can actually be considered immediate,
is contained in a classified publication, dated 31 December 1951, “The
Security Corps of Somalia from its origins to 31 December 1951”, a “fresh
document” of the most recent events , where it was specified that “we did
(7)
not believe that the bad fate of a lost campaign could have dispersed all traces
of our past work, even if ten years have passed. But they contested with this
conviction: serious events that occurred (massacres of 11 January 1948);
intensity of the propaganda carried out insistently against us by those who
had an interest in doing so; unfavorable information that we received and that
we were not able to check with absolute certain since our recent- absence
from the Country, even if our informants, however a short in numbers, stres-
sed their exaggeration.
The HQ therefore decided to stick to the aforementioned criterion in the
preparation, believing that an excellent first impression given to the population
and to foreigners, on our moral-disciplinary solidity and on our efficiency,
would have been the essential basis for winning back quickly our prestige
without being forced to use weapons. And this in fact - except for negligible ini-
tial incidents - happened throughout the territory”.
In fact, the task of the Security Corps was facilitated by the establishment,
under the command of General Arturo Ferrara, who had long served in the
colony in the 1920s and was a profound connoisseur of the local landscape, of
an Italian Liaison Mission, composed of a small group of officers and officials
to make contact with the British administration, assess the situation on the
ground and prepare everything necessary to facilitate the establishment of the
Security Corps and, in general, of the civil administration. From an organiza-
tional point of view, the most important merit that must be ascribed to the
Mission was the proposal, easily approved by the British, to recruit local forces,
even before the starting of the trust administration.

(7) Comando Corpo di Sicurezza della Somalia - Stato Maggiore, Il Corpo di sicurezza della
Somalia dalle sue origini al 31 dicembre 1951, Copia n. 15, indirizzata all’Amministratore
dell’AFIS dal Gen. Ferrara in data 15 febbraio 1953, ASMAE, f. AFIS, busta 16, fasc. 66.

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