THE NEW ITALY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1945, Page 4

THE NEW ITALY

WHAT SFORZA URGES

UNITY WITH YUGOSLAVIA

By WALLACE REYBURN

ROME. "The national frontiers of tomorrow should be written down with pencil, not with ink. They should be elastic and not tight compartments." This was one of the views expressed "to me by Count Sforza when I had a chat with him at his home in Rome. It was in reply to a question I had asked him with regard to Trieste and the Istria Peninsula, that part of north-eastern Italy that the Yugoslavs feel should belong to them. "The Yugoslav publicists have

attacked me," Sforza said, "because they know I have always wanted a policy of close friendship between Yugoslavia and Italy. That sounds rather Irish, but the point is that Yugoslavs have been the victims of the most beastly Fascist regime and they want revenge. That is why Yugoslavia appears annoyed at the existence of an Italian statesman who has always preached the necessity for the most intimate relations between the two nations. The defect is that the Italians and Yugoslavs must agree out of selfishness, if not out of generosity. We have a common enemy, the eternal German mania to come and settle down on the shores of the Adriatic. If we are united, there will be no danger. If we are divided, the Germans will try again in twenty years." A Major Post-War Headache • Sforza pointed out that Trieste is essentially an Italian city and in his opinion must remain Italian, but the port of Trieste, one of the best in' the world, should be internationalised and put at the disposal of the Yugoslavs. The settling of territorial claims in the Trieste area is going to be one of the major post-war headaches, and because this is the most important port for shipping supplies for Central Europe many countries are directly affected. The big Powers are keenly interested in knowing what policy ah Italian Foreign Minister would follow in this regard. Sforza's reply to a question regarding the present apparent tendency toward domination of the world by the great Powers was that it was a very delicate problem. "I will remind you of one fact," he said. "The League of Nations has been so far the most loyal attempt to enforce peace and the nations most enthusiastic and faithful to the idea of the League were the small nations, not the great Powers."

He felt that Italy's best contribution toward peace would be for her to be far-seeing enough to understand that the best way to safeguard her prosperity and safety is to promote prosperity and safety for all nations. "But first, we must get our own house in order," he added. On the subject of the present complicated Italian political situation, I asked Sforza what accounted for the multiplicity of parties in Italy. "Don't be deceived by appearances," he said. "All our parties, although under different names, are in reality only two —the Conservative? and Progressives, of, if you like, three, if we put apart Communism as a special organisation of its own. I, myself, am an Independent. I don't believe in parties. What makes a country are men, not parties. Without great leaders, no country can be great. With men like Gladstone, Rosebery and Salisbury Britain was great, but .with' Chamberlain it was another story. Men make history, not political parties."

"Co Restore World Respect "Do you think Italy is so politically confused now that it would embrace some would-be dictator?" "After the Italian unification in 1860 the country was perfectly ordered, so why not again? After all, Fascism was a disease more universal than Italian. It spread through Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Argentina." When I asked what he thought would be the most evil result of Fascism to the future of Italy he said: "I am afraid of no permanent bad consequences of Fascism except in one case; that a selfish policy of foreign Powers gives new life to the worst side of Fascism—l mean nationalism and xenophobia (dislike of strangers)."

"Do you think the social conflict among classes will make democracy impossible in Italy?" "No, on condition that daring and generous social and agrarian reforms are loyally accepted by all. The key to the future of civilisation is to find a working basis between Communism and democracy. Italy can only regain the respect of the world by her discovery of the necessary equilibrium between freedom of spirit and the new economic organisation,"

Sforza's view of the effect on the general Italian situation of the failure to publish armistice terms was that keeping them secret was not evil in itself. All Italians, he said, have well understood that the armistice has only one term in theory, that the Allies have all the powers and Italy none. Therefore, what matters is not the publication of the armistice terms but to show by facts that the Italian nation which now has 200,000 volunteers in the north in constant fighting against the Germans gets the respect from the Allies to which she is entitled.

Sorting the Sheep and Goats Asked whether the job of weeding out Fascists had been more difficult than expected, Sforza said: "In my work as High Commissioner, three branches came under my orders: Punishment of Fascist crimes, confiscation of Fascist properties, and epuration of officials. The first two have shown good results but I am not satisfied with the progress of the epuration of Fascist officials. "The difficulty has been that during long years of Fascism, there were many good officials who had to fall to some compromise at a certain moment just as Fascist officials may have done some generous action at another moment. Naturally, it takes a lot of sifting. In the north, it will be easier. Up there, we will be able to put the question, 'Did you work or did you not work for the Germans?' If they have been traitors, they will be punished most severely. If they have bravely defied the Germans, they will be considered innocent even if in the past some of them had Fascist illusions."—Auckland Star and N.A.N.A. I