FASCIST GOVERNMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 66, 15 September 1943, Page 5

FASCIST GOVERNMENT

DUCE REPORTED IN CONTROL

LONDON, September 14. Berlin radio announced that the Fascist National Government, which was founded in Signor Mussolini's name, is now under Jais direct control.

It is stated authoritatively in London that Mussolini was never in our hands, for which reason a neutral report that he was rescued from Sicily is most improbable. Berlin radio announced that other leading Fascists were freed with Mussolini, and the Dutch radio stated that his son, Vittorio Mussolini, has arrived in Germany. According to Algiers radio, Mussolini is now en route to Hitler's headquarters. A frontier correspondent of the Zurich "Die Tat" says Mussolini has joined Signor Farinacci at Cremona, north Italy, which is the new seat of the Fascist government. The correspondent adds that former Fascist officials are again ruling in Milan, Turin, Genoa, Novara, Bologna, and other north Italian towns under German control.' The Fascist newspaper "Regima Fascista" has also reappeared. "The news of the rescue of Mussolini is the subject of considerable doubt in diplomatic quarters, where the impression is growing that the Diice either was dead when he was found or is in the hands of the Allies, and that the Nazis are trying to smoke out a declaration to this effect," says the "New York Times" correspondent in Berne, Switzerland. "A 'lemon' of this size, when exposed, would naturally ruin the credence of any future German claims. However, it is noted that the German sources for internal consumption have not stressed the news of Mussolini's alleged rescue.

"If the Duce is dead, which is considered probable, it would explain his non-appearance on the radio, which is a point the Germans so far have failed to explain."

It is believed in London, says the diplomatic correspondent of the "Evening Standard," that the report that the Germans freed Mussolini is true. It was not a condition of the armistice terms that Marshal Badoglio should hand Mussolini over to the Allies, but it is the intention of the Allies to try Mussolini with Hitler and the other war criminals when the war is won. Hitler's latest move is considered in London as a daring stroke from which he is bound to gain considerable prestige in satellite and neutral countries.

GERMAN PROPAGANDA

Rec. 10.20 a.m.

LONDON, Sept. 14,

It is reported from Turin that the Germans are making extensive use of the liberation of Mussolini as propaganda. Printing offices in northern Italy have been compelled to issue thousands of huge posters announcing the news. An order decrees the hanging out of Fascist flags and the immediate donning of black shirts in Germanoccupied Italy.