NORTH ITALIAN PARTISANS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24567, 16 May 1945, Page 7

NORTH ITALIAN PARTISANS

Mass Executions Of Fascists ALLIED CONTROL RESISTED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec, 9 pm.) LONDON, May 15. “Mass executions of Fascists and former collaborators are occurring in northern Italy,” says the “Daily Express” correspondent in Milan. “The executions are being carried out by Left Wing Italian partisans. “Allied troops are having the greatest difficulty in maintaining any sort of control over the partisans, who are ruling parts of northern Italy. “At least 4000 people have been executed to Milan in the last fortnight by Left Wing extremists, and in Turin and the provinces 3000 more have been killed by partisan bands. Communist partisans shot Colonel Oalessi, the hero who organised the Italian Maquis and saved the great Spluga hydro-electric plant from destruction by the Germans. “Attempts to disarm extremist elements have met with strong resistance, and unconfirmed reports say that fights have broken out between Communists and the Allied occupation forces.” The Milan correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” says that every morning the city patrols find 20 or 30 murdered people in the streets, some of them Fascists, some partisans. The correspondent reports that three partisan leaders are now in Rome discussing with the Prime Minister (Professor Bonomi) the formation of a new police force in northern Italy. Everywhere in Italy there is a growing clamour for the immediate arrest of all suspected Fascists.