EARLY CAPITULATION EXPECTED IN LONDON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 197, 20 August 1943, Page 3

EARLY CAPITULATION EXPECTED IN LONDON

ITALY'S DIRE PLIGHT Ambassadors Visit Royal Palace N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 10.30 a.m: LONDON, Aug. 19. Following reports from Swedish correspondents in Rome that a major development occurred in Italy yesterday, but that censorship prevented disclosure of the news, observers in London expect an early announcement of Italy's capitulation. The Italian Government is believed now to have realised that it is impossible to defend the country against the Allied air offensive and to repulse an invasion of the Italian mainland. Vatican radio to-aay stated: "Newspaper correspondents in Rome have noted frequent visits of Ambassadors, Ministers and the Apostolic Nuncia to the Royal Palace. The Vatican is fully aware of its pacifying and selfless task. In the present decisive hour the Vatican does not cease to exercise its vigilant sense of responsibility and its active and impartial co-operation in all efforts which are calculated to grant peace again to the world." More Peace Demonstrations Reuters correspondent at Lugano, Switzerland, reports the continuance of peace demonstrations in Northern Italy and says that bloody clashes are occurring frequently between the populace and the police. Crowds of destitute people continue to flee from the bombed cities to the Swiss frontier. Port workers in Genoa held a mass strike yesterday in support of peace demands, says the British United Press correspondent on the Italian frontier. The militia disobeyed orders to fire on the strikers, who marched to the central square, where they held a big peace demonstration while the police looked on helpless. Peace demonstrators in Turin barricaded themselves in ruined buildings in the centre of the city and fought off Italian troops with machine-guns, says the Berne correspondent of the New York Times. Ammunition is reported to have been dropped to them by parachute. When the barricade eventually was stormed the Italian soldiers are said to have joined the demonstrators in a hand-to-hand fight against a German patrol which rushed up. Telephone communication between Switzerland and Italy again has been cut, says a Swiss radio announcement. After being cut on Monday it was resumed on Tuesday morning, by way of Berlin, but yesterday morning it was again interrupted. The daily passenger train service between Berne and Rome has been suspended since Sunday. BaiToglio Broadcasts to Sicilians In a three-minute broadcast over Rome radio Badoglio spoke to "our beloved brothers in Sicily, whose sacred territory had to be abandoned after a vigorous defence by Italian and German troops against vastly preponderant forces and material." He added: "Italy has known grief like this before, but it has never weakened her fibre. No event will ever detach you Sicilians from the great motherland. Every Italian heart is with you and for you. As head of the Government I shall take all necessary measures to alleviate the suffering of Sicilian refugees in continental Italy. "Do not despair. A people to whom the world owes thousands of years of civilisation cannot perish if it retains its faith."

BROADCASTS TO ITALY RESPONSIBILITY FOR WAR British Official Wireless Rec. 2.30 p.m. RUGBY, Aug. 19. There has been no news to-day as to how the Italian people are reacting to the fall of Sicily, but they are being constantly reminded that the lesson should be taken well to heart. To-day every 8.8.C. broadcast to Italy began and ended with the words: "This is the 26th day of the Badoglio Government's war against the United Nations. The responsibility for the continuation of the German war on Italian soil rests only with the Italian Government led by Badoglio."