ITALIAN PRISONERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 63, 11 September 1943, Page 7

ITALIAN PRISONERS

LONDON, September 10,

Thirty-five thousand Italian prisoners engaged in helping Britain gather the harvest went to work as' usual this morning. Reports from "one of the biggest camps in East Anglia state that when the Italians were told of the capitulation of Italy there was general rejoicing. ' At the same time, they were warned that this announcement did not mean any relaxation in normal work or routine.

Farmers reported this afternoon that gangs worked harder/than usual. Some good-conduct men who have been living on farms even seem uneasy at the thought that they might be sent back to Italy. ■ '• , Under the Geneva Convention, the belligerent Powers, on ."Sn armistice, make their own decision as to the repatriation of prisoners. Pending such a decision, prisoners, if physically fit and below commissioned rank, can be kept at suitable work.

THE MAFIA BROKEN UP

LONDON, September 10,

Scotland Yard detectives whom Amgot has called in have broken up the Mafia, the Sicilian terrorist society, which has defied the authorities for 100 years, says Reuters Algiers correspondent. The Mafia was running a food black market. Scotland Yard men invited the leaders to attend a food supply conference at the town hall in Casteldaccia. When the gangsters left they found themselves facing a ring of machine-guns and riiles.