WITH ITALIANS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 1, 27 September 1943, Page 5

WITH ITALIANS

British Prisoners Oppose Germans MANY IN REICH, SAYS BERLIN (By Telegraph.— Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received September 26, 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, September 25. The German news agency states that British prisoners of war are being continuously transferred from Italy to Germany. So far, about 30,000 have been transferred and a further 15,000 to 20,000 are waiting under German guard for transfer. Several thousand British prisoners who were liberated by Marshal Badoglio’s forces are being pursued by German mobile troops. These prisoners, witli Bodoglio’s followers, from whom they have received some arms, apparently intend to light their way to the Allied-occupied territory,' the agency says.

POPE’S POSITION Report In New York VATICAN PRISONER (Received Septemibed 26, 11.35 p.m.) -NEW YORK, September 26. / The first authoritative confirmation that the Pope is held a prisoner in the Vatican was given by Archbishop Spellman, says the New York “Sunday News.” “The Pope’s position.is most difficult,” the paper says. . “Like StPeter, he is a prisoner and is not free to communicate with his archbishops throughout the world. We have no positive and concrete way of helping him.”

According to the London correspondent of the "New York Times,” Britain’s Minister to the Vatican, Mr. Osborne, and the American representative,'Mr. Tittman, are communicating fairly regularly with their Governments,' but the Germans are determined to halt the practice. The “New York Times,” speculating on the political consequences of the fall of the Vatican, says that it would not be so drastic as centuries ago, since the nations which would bo most shocked—ltaly, France and Spain—are the least able to do anything. It adds that high Catholics in London estimate that the reaction would be sharpest "next in French Canada, South America and Australia, with dismay and anger voiced in Britain and America.” Voluntary Prisoner. LONDON, September 24. The Pope intends to constitute himself a voluntary prisoner by re-establishing the conditions which prevailed before the Lateran Treaty of 1939. Till the Lateran Treaty was signed no Pope had left the Vatican City since 1870,, this being in protest against the entry of King victor Emmanuel’s troops into Rome and the conquest of the last of the Papacy s temporal possessions.

A London message on September 21 said that Lord Cranborne (then Lord Privy Seal), answering a question iu the House of Lords regarding ihN occupation of Rome by the Germans, said: “It appears that German troops may not have actually violated the territory of Vatican City, though they certainly are in very. close proximity to it. The Government has asked the Resident Minister in Algiers, Mr. MacMillan, for further information.” Vatican radio reports that a German patrol posted in front of Saint Peters Square, which is ' the boundary between Rome and the territory of Vatican City, has not actually entered Vatican City. The Italian Commander-in-Chief in Rome telephoned to the Vatican, whereupon officials went to the boundary and saw for themselves that the Germans had not crossed the boundary.

KING AND BADOGLIO

Established On Italian x Mainland (Received September 26, (8.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 25. King Victor Emmanuel and the Badoglio Government have established themselves somewhere oil the Italian peninsula, from which point they will co-ordinate the resistance against the Germans in occupied Italy. The Swiss telegraph agency has denied a statement from Berlin radio that the Queen and Crown Prince of Italy had arrived in Switzerland and adds that they are probably in Sicily.

ITALIANS EXECUTED LONDON, September 26.

The Germans report the execution in Italy of the secretary of the Metal Workers’ Federation, who had been released from jail after the fall of Mussolini, and also another well-known Milan trade unionist. '