MARSHAL BADOGLIO AND ITALY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 310, 25 September 1943, Page 7

MARSHAL BADOGLIO AND ITALY

British Desire Stated (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 23. Speaking of the future of. Italy when he wound up the war debate in the House of Lords, Lord Cranborne (the Lord Privy Seal) said: “It is the Governments hope that Marshal Badoglio will set up as soon as possible a Government on the widest possible political basis, including all sections of opinion except the r ascists. It is also the Governments hope that ultimately, when circumstances permitted. the Italian people will choose that Government which will suit them best when normal times arrived.’ Speaking of the Italian Fleet, Lord Cranborne said it did not surrender; it moved to designated points under the terms of the armistice. 'The future ot the fleet was under consideration, but much depended on the extent to which the Italian nation co-operated against the Lord Cranborne denied that the Government’s political preparations were behind the military preparations in Italy, and said that to have pushed ahead, m Italy with a sort of half-baked invasion before we were really ready would have been absolutely disastrous and would not have secured for us the Italian Navy. He also repudiated a suggestion that we bombed Turin and Milan after peace feelers had been put out. He described this as a most odious and disgusting suggestion. . He deprecated any suggestion that this country was not playing its full part, in the war. The name of tlie British nation stood high today. Many great countries had fallen by the way in the last four years because they had lost pride in their institutions, and with it their unity. “I hope we shall never do that," he concluded.