INKPOT BATTLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 229, 27 September 1943, Page 5

INKPOT BATTLE

Mussolini's Finale At Fascist Council Meeting

ITALIANS CALL CIANO JUDAS Rec. 9.30 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 26. An inkpot battle decided Mussolini's fate at the last meeting of the Fascist Grand Council, says Reuters correspondent with the Fifth Army. The inside story of the Duce's downfall is told by an Italian general who commanded the Carabinieri who arrested Mussolini. He said Mussolini went to the council meeting and announced Hitler's decision not to defend Southern Italy. Pandemonium broke out in the council chamber. Members shouted and threatened each other and threw inkpots. Mussolini tried high-handed tactics. He went home saying: "Well, we have had a meeting. Let us get on with the war." Ciano, whom the Italians now call Judas, went with Grandi and asked the King to intervene. The King insisted that Mussolini should make the request constitutionally. Mussolini reluctantly visited the King and acknowledged that the situation was serious, but he refused to resign "until I have seen it through one way or the other." . . The King dismissed Mussolini, who was arrested outside the palace and driven off protesting in a closed car. "DEAD AS POMPEII" Naples As Observed From Allied Bomber Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 26. "Naples is as dead as Pompeii," says a British United Press correspondent who flew over the city in a Mitchell bomber. The correspondent adds that the Mitchell came in low over Mount Vesuvius and circled around the city, but there was no anti-aircraft fire and neither was there any fighter opposition. There was no sign of traffic or smoke from chimneys, but there were great clouds of smoke from burning oil refineries south-east of the city. "Everything in the harbour had been flattened, either by bombs •or German demolition squads," the correspondent adds, "but in the city area apparently little damage had been caused. There were nine ships in the harbour, three of which were lying on their sides and six listing heavily. The lack of any signs of life in the city suggests that either it has been evacuated or that a curfew order has been issued by the Germans." RADIO SETS BANNED DRASTIC HIMMLER DECREE LONDON, Sept. 26. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm newspaper Allehanda says owing to increasing listening to foreign broadcasts Himmler is confiscating all German radio sets.