INAPPLICABLE CLAUSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 64, 13 September 1943, Page 5

INAPPLICABLE CLAUSES

LATER DEVELOPMENTS

Rec. 11.15 .a.m

RUGBY, Sept. 12,

In the light of developments immediately preceding and following the landing in Italy, some of the terms of the armistice are manifestly inapplicable now. The terms were drawn up, General Eisenhower told correspondents, before the German forces in Italy had been strengthened sufficiently to make Italy virtually an occupied country. ■

The clauses providing if or the turning over of prisoners and internees, the transfer of Italian1 merchant shipping and aircraft, the surrender of Corsica, and the guarantee of the use of airfields, ports, etc., had been rendered inapplicable in those portions of Italy where the German armed forces had taken control. Marshal Badoglio's Government at the time the terms were signed would have been able to implement them completely, but now no national Government could work effectively in Italy.

Nevertheless, the strength of the Badoglio Government had been sufficient to get the Italian fleet out of German and into Allied hands, but even if the terms gave the Allies nothing material beyond possession of the fleet, that in itself was wholly worth while, said General Eisenhower. A powerful and well-balanced fleet had reached Malta, and the implications of its possession were very broad, ; Its seryice disposition was a matter 'for decision by the Allied Governments. General Eisenhower added that the taking possession of material from the conquered enemy entitled the victors to make whatever use of it they deemed advisable which would place the fleet at the immediate disposal of the Allied naval forces. Even without that, the surrender of the Italian fleet released the enormous power of the British Fleet from the Mediterranean to reinforce the sea-power at Scapa Flow, in the Indian Ocean, and in the Southwest Pacific. Since the enemy now had only submarines and E-boats in the Mediterranean, only light forces would have to be retained to combat them.