THE ITALIAN PEOPLE

Evening Star, Issue 23423, 14 November 1939, Page 8

THE ITALIAN PEOPLE

STRONGLY PRO-BRITISH FAVOUR THE MONARCHY [Pee United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, November 14. “ The sentiment of the mass of the Italian people is strongly pro-British, said Mr J. L. Conlan, a well-known Auckland solicitor, who has arrived back after an eight months’ tour of Britain, the Continent, Canada, and America. Mr Conlan said he spoke in cafes with Italian airmen who had been wounded fighting in Spain. They had no love for the Germans, whom they considered boorish and overbearing. The Rome-Berlin Axis itself, he said, arose because of the support _ Germany had given Italy in the Abyssinian crisis. It >was artificial. Mussolini had taken Albania to prevent German infiltration into the Balkans. The people in Italy were strongly in favour of the Monarchy, and if a clash came between Mussolini and the King they would follow the King, who was strongly in favour of the British.

In America Mr Conlan heard the opinion in responsible quarters that, while the Americans were saying, that the United States must keep out pr the war, they considered that they would have to come in ultimately;