THE IRON HAND OF FASCISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE IRON HAND OF FASCISM.

(By FRANCESCO FAUSTO NITTL)

FKAXCESCO XITTI, nephew of a former Prime Minister ot Italy and opponent of the Fascist regime, this arrested in Rome nearly three years asro and deported to the barren islet of Lampedusa, off the African coast, on a charge of being hostile to Fascism. From Lampedusa he was transferred to Lipari, another desolate island. While at Lipari, Nitti met two other political deportees. Dr. Rosselli, a young professor, and Signor Lussu, a veteran of the Great War, in which he was four times decorated for gallantry under fire. NITTI, ROSSELLI and LUSSU succeeded in escaping from Lipari in the face of almost superhuman difficulties and succeeded in reaching France. Almost immediately afterwards the Italian Goverumen arrested Professor Rosselli's' wife. a young woman of English origin, and kept her in custody as a sort of hostage for her husband's good behaviour abroad. A little later, however, Signora Rosselli was released. SIGNOR NITTI gives a vivid account of his life in the penal settlement and a dramatic description of his escape with h\s two friends. The story is told in two intensely interesting instalments, the second of which appears below.

The Dash For Liberty. We were working for about a year making everything ready for our escape down to the smallest detail. Some of our friends living in exile abroad had promised us their help, and said that they would come and carry us away at night, taking the guards by surprise. Our first task was to find a place suitable for escaping in a boat. We then set about making a study of the- habits of our gaolers. For many months we all followed a course of life which attracted no sort of suspicion to us, and at the same time we were carrying on our preparations for giving our guards the slip. Often at night Lussu would go out on reconnoitring expeditions, disguised as an old fisherman. These expeditions gave us most valuable information. We fixed upon a place for getting away from the island. It is true that in order to reach it we should have to pass quite close to two, armed patrols, but • we reckoned on darkness and on lack of suspicion on the part of the Fascists to help us. The place was not far' from the village, and was a little cove surrounded by rocks rising sheer from the

The arrangement was that we should meet our friends from abroad at -this cove at 9 p.m. on July 27. This was the exact hour at which, like every other evening, we had to be at home for the evening roll call. If our friends had failed us, and if the guards had surprised us, we should certainly have been stopped, but we had every faith in bur friends, and we decided to carry through the attempt. Rosselli, who lived about three-quarters of a mile away from the cove, had to reach, it. after a dangerous creep through a network of alleys. Lussu, who could not come out of his house by the front door, which was watched by the police, dropped down a rope from a window overlooking a lane at the back of his house. He was disguised as an old boatman, and he limped along smoking a big pipe through several brightly-lit streets where the officers of the police and of the .garrison were -walking about or sitting at cafes. I was 'standing in a tavern until- a few minutes before the time for our escape, then, with' a cheery "au revoir" to some'friendly deportees ■who naturally knew mothing about' my plans, I walked.- towards, my . house. I had got to a'certain.point, however, I turned,- and> in' order to avoid a patrol which was : coming towards me, I lay flat oh -the 'ground, and then I crawled on all fours, to a band of deep shadow where I remained motionless for a few minutes. From, there I reached our rendezvous-without further difficulty, and diving fully dressed into the sea I swam out| to a-point where it had been agreed that 'our 'friends from abroad should pick: ua up. Eight, forty-five struck from '■■;the clock in the village. There was yet no" sign of Lussu or Eoselli, and I was beginning to ask myself what had.'happened and whether my two friends,., less "fortunate than myself, had been arrested; All 'sorts of. melancholy thoughts crossed my mind, and I was peering through the darkness in the hope of seeing the boat which was to take us away, but all in vain.

An Agony of Doubt. Nine o'clock struck and I was becoming more. and, more, anxious about. the fate of. my itwo friends. I had been in. the water for nearly 20 minutes, and I was beginning ;to. feel chilly. A little later I 'began to hear, a noise which, considering my- state of nerves,; struck me as being terribly loud. It was the beat of a motor engine, which was coming closer, and I was in an agony of doubt whether the ship was the one I was expecting ;or a police boat. After another few moments the dark outline of a launch • showed itself against the night some 50 yards away. The boat was slowly coming towards the spot where I was up to my neck in water. When she arrived about ten yards away from me, a voice which I recognised at once as that of one of my exiled friends whispered the password agreed between US. ■ ;>.>2 «. ' *{ . s :

I cannot describe what; I felt at 'dhai moment. There was, something- marvellous in the punctuality, with which our friends liad- kept the appointment, ■ especially when one considers the small size of thair boat and the hundreds of miles they had to cover,-as well as the difficulties to he overcome in approaching the island without being seen. As in the days' of the Great War, these men had broken-through' a blockade arid had evaded signal stations, searchlights, and every kind of light patrol boat. I swam as quickly as I could, to wards my friends, who dragged me on board and gave me a hearty welcome. Meanwhile, what had happened to Lxissu and Roselli? I quickly told my friends all that there was to be told. Meanwhile, they had stopped their TeiSard." 01 bein^ therein* ag T Sed * ait - W * stood there m dead silence, broken onlv bv . llii§§ ■light.- My friends flung themsS fij the oars and pulled desperatPiT^ + ? direction of the W WeS tlle enjoying the evening coolness. 9

ESCAPE FROM ITALIAN PENAL ISLANDS.

Off at Full Speed, It was at that moment when we had really begun to despair of ever seeing Lussu and Rosselli that we heard two quick splashes in the water near the spot where we should have all met. It could only have lieen the two missing men. It was then after 9.30 p.m. and we only just had time to escape. In a quarter of an hour the alarm would be given and hundreds of men and every available boat would have started in pursuit of us.

The motor throbbed loudly, hut now we were indifferent to the noise that it might make. Indeed, at that moment the noise seemed to be a very pleasant one, sounding almost like a word of encouragement 'from a powerful ally. We quickly closed with our friends vrlio were swimming and dragged them oir board, and we then started off at full speed.

After the first few moments of excitement Lussu told us that on his way to the water's edge he had come across a patrol standing in front of a little street down which he had to go. A large lamp, moreover, was throwing a lot of light on the place, and at any moment he might have been recognised. . He therefore sat down a few steps away from the patrol, lit a pipe and waited for the soldiers to. move a few yards, and then he walked past them. Rosselli said that he had lost some time hidden in a doorway waiting for a squad of police to go past him.

Fascism Seizes Hostages. We kept up our journey at full speed for 10 hours. All night long until dawn broke we had to consider the possibility of. being followed. A quarter of an hour after our departure the alarm must certainly have been given, :and the wireless station must have warned all the neighbouring .naval bases of our escape. It was quite possible that we might meet at daybreak some torpedo, boat steaming so as to bar .our way. Fortunately, however, we had "no such unpleasant meeting. Probably the surprise and ; the confusion on the island were so complete that the authorities sent out entirely contradictory reports and in: structions. On July 28 we. reached a foreign land, and; a; few days later we were in France. It was only; 13 days afterwards that the Fascist Government issued a brief communication to- the Italian Press about our escape, being obliged to "give this information owing to the full reports about us which had already been published in a large eection of the foreign. Press.

Resorting to- the penal practices of other days when reprisals and the taking of hostages were favoured, two days after we escaped Bosselli's brother Nollo, a history student, popular among, his friends, and entirely unconnected with politics, was arrested and immediately deported to Ustica, Eosselli's wife, an English-born woman (Miss Marion Cave), formerly a teacher at the British Institute in Florence, was arrested at Coin - - mayeur, where she was spending a holiday with her two-year-old boy, and knew nothing about her husband's escape. She was kept for a day and a night in prison with ordinary criminals, and it was only because she was suffering from h\er heart,'and was about to , have another baby, that she was taken to a hotel, where she remained under close guard and was forbidden to communicate with anybody.

I and Lussu are- bachelors, and we have had no news of our families.— {"Star" and N". A.KA. ; Copyright).