FATE OF ROME. NAZI GANGSTERISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 86, 8 October 1943, Page 5

FATE OF ROME. NAZI GANGSTERISM

CRITICAL SITUATION

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

LONDON, October 7

A critical situation has developed in Rome, where, according to news reaching London from many sources, the Germans are acting as they did before the fall of Naples. The reports mention sackings, killings, the removal of Ministries, and, in fact, all the pre* liminaries to an eventual evacuation. The Germans are looting Rome. They are stated to be removing paintings, old manuscripts, art treasures, and anything else that is valuable. It is stated that no gangster methods have ever equalled what is occurring in Rome. The Madrid correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says-that the Vatican 1 authorities are preparing for the worst, even for the possible carrying off of the Pope as a hostage. The Pope has sent to representatives abroad a document which is to be published only if he is imprisoned or removed from Rome. In this document the Pope is understood to have declared that he would never leave Rome voluntarily but only as a prisoner.' The Papal Nuncios throughout the world will present the documents to the Governinents to which they are accredited if the Germans announce that the Pope has taken up residence elsewhere "to ensure his personal safety." All the Vatican buildings which enjoy rights of extra-territoriality are being clearly designated in case fighting occurs round the city. "PROTECTION" OF VATICAN. "As Rome has been a war zone for 48 hours and the Italian army has not taken adequate measures to protect the Vatican, German paratroops have taken over this task, and we are sure of the Holy Father's full understanding in this," said the German overseas radio. "The Vatican authorities have ordered the construction of a modern barracks for our troops so that they need no longer pass the night in open cars. A hospital for our sick and. wounded has been established in the Vatican. Rome is not an occupied but a friendly city. The German forces are relatively small, in order to give Rome the character of an open city, but the German commander naturally exercises control and makes himself responsible for the security of the inhabitants. The Italian police have been armed and given equipment necessary to deal with the Communist elements. There are at present food supplies in Rome for Ift or 16 days." A plot to kidnap the Pope and remove him "to a place of security outside the reach of the British and Americans'' is reported from the Italian frontier, says the "New Yorkj Times" Berne correspondent. The plot failed and the ringleaders," some of whom are discredited Black Shirts, were arrested. The correspondent says that the truth of the story, which has caused great apprehension in Catholic quar.ters, cannot be ascertained, but it is considered significant that the Nazisponsored Italian radio warned its listeners that the Allies were planning to kidnap the Pope in order to use his name as a propaganda weapon against the Axis. PARTISANS' WAR IN NORTH. ! Meanwhile, says the correspondent, the anti-Axis partisans' operations in [northern Italy have attained the pitch lof outright* warfare. For example, in[the Como region 4000 Alpini have cleared more than 100 square miles of territoi-y, and in other sectors, including Milan, the Germans have given up further attempts to maintain their railway communications in face of partisan sabotage. According to Rome radio, the Fascist Republican Government has moved from Rome to an industrial city in northern Italy. Rome's newspapers and the official news service will follow to the same city, and the Ministers are also being moved. The radio added: "The Foreign Ministry is always where Signor Mussolini is, and therefore it has no fixed headquarters." The "Daily Express" says that the Germans are talking openly of the Allied threat to Rome. The "Borsen Zeitung" states that Mussolini's Government has been transferred north from Rome because the war can no | longer be directed from the capital, ! which _is endangered from the sea, i while' its lines of communication mav ;be cut off because of the nearness of \ enemy airfields.

Other sources refer to a state of siege m Rome, with the people bordering on starvation.