EFFECT BELITTLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 63, 11 September 1943, Page 8

EFFECT BELITTLED

ITALY'S COLLAPSE

HITLER'S REFERENCE

Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Sept 10. V "Posterity will say that, with the exception of a few brave Italian units, at was the German troops who from the Itifne of the Italian surrender defended with their blood not only the German Reich but also Italian soil," said Hitler in the course of his speech. .: The Italian Government may try to "justify as it likes the decision to make Italy a battlefield. It may try to call it necessity, but it will never find an excuse for the fact that this was' done without as much as informing its ally beforehand. The King, on -the very day of capitulation, called the German Charge d'Affaires and assured him emphatically that Italy would never capitulate but was resolved to remain loyally at the.side of Germany through thick and thin. Even one hour after the publication of the betrayal, the Italian chief of staff, General Roatta, declared' to German military representatives that the report was an indecent lie and English propaganda. On the very day that he signed the iarmisti'ce Marshal Badoglio assured the German Charged' Affaires in Rome that he would never betray Germany. Democratic war-mongers and men m the present Italian Government may consider such an attitude a snmmg example of tactically clever statesmanship. History,will judge otherwise.

"FANATICALLY UNITED."

"I was • bound in duty to order all those measures which could possibly be taken to preserve the German Reich from the fate which Marshal Badoglio and his men inflicted .not only on the Duce and. the Italian people, but which they intended also to bring upon Germany. . "The defection of Italy means little from a military point of view, since the German forces have borne the struggle of this country for months. We shall now continue this struggle, free from all burdensome restrictions.

"An attempt by international plutocratic conspiracy to make light of the German resistance in Italy is childish. In so doing they mistake the German people for another people. Their hope of finding traitors among the German people, as they have done in;ltaly, is founded oh complete ignorance of the essence of the National Socialist State More than ever before, the German Command stands as a fanatically united combination opposed to this design. Every emergency will only strengthen us in our resolution. "As far as I am concerned, my personal life has long since ceased to belong to me. I work with full consciousness of my duties and in the knowledge that through my contribution I can assure the life of my people for generations ahead/