BADOGLIO'S MOVE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 271, 15 November 1943, Page 3

BADOGLIO'S MOVE

PROVISIONAL RULE ; . ] Anti-Fascist Leaders Refuse i To Co-operate ! N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 14. > Marshal Badoglio has issued a statement from Italian Government headquarters in South Italy confirming the report that Count Sforza and Dr. Benedetto Croce have refused to participate actively with the Badoglio Government until King Victor Emmanual has abdicated, the Crown Prince has renounced the succession and the Crown Prince's son has been made King with a Regency during his minority. "The leaders of each party have informed me," said Marshal Badoglio, "that once Rome was liberated they would favour the establishment of a completely constitutional Government, leaving me only military affairs. I then suggested that the King should form a Government by placing in each Ministry technical experts who would be work with the Allied Commission. The King approved of this plan. I shall now complete the Government with under-secretaries authorised to deal with matters pertaining to each Ministry. Thus the necessary administrative work will not be held in abevance, causes of disturbances in liberated zones will be avoided, and the desires of the leaders of all political narties will be met. "Of myself," he concluded, "once we reach Rome I will he delighted to remove so heavy a burden into more expert hands and into the care of more youthful energies. I am happy to have assumed, under order from the King, the responsibility of the armistice and the declaration of war against Germany, and also to have collaborated fully with the efforts which the British and Americans have made and are making to free Italy." Work of Allied Commission Begun Marshal Badoglio, in a further statement, said: "The first thing to do is to free Italy of the Germans — to make radical political changes now Would only upset the liberated zone and thus hamper the Allies and forestall the wishes of the whole Italian people, which can only be expressed after all Italy is freed." Meanwhile, say correspondents, there are two further developments. Experts of the Allied Commission have begun to arrive in Italy ready to set to work on the problems of liberated Italy, and political leaders have decided that Marshal Badoglio should resign and leave the task of the Government to politicians. So he has decided to reform the Government with experts acting nominally as Under-Secretaries, but with the powers of Ministers, so that they can begin work with the Allied experts As'an illustration of the far-reach-ing loyalty of the Italians to their King, Marshall Badoglio pointed out that all the Italian Ambassadors, except the Ambassador in Berlin, had preferred arrest and the concentration camp rather than foreswear allegiance to the House of Savoy. The Ambassador in Berlin was suffering from extremely harsh treatmerit Marshal Badoglio said that Italy had recognised Russia as a co-belli-gerent and the Communist party was legalised in Italy and free to publish a newspaper. Trade unions were being re-established and hundreds of unions were being re-established. A hundred Fascists were already in concentration camps in the liberated zone.