WAR WEARINESS

Evening Star, Issue 24002, 29 September 1941, Page 7

WAR WEARINESS

IS ITALY CRACKING? UNREST THROUGHOUT NATION SERIOUS RIOTING AND SABOTAGE Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON. September 28. The diplomatic correspondent of the ‘ Sunday Express,’ writing under the. streamer heading, “ Italy on the Eve of a Break-up,” says that information from the Italian frontier foreshadows imminent developments of the utmost importance. The situation in Italy is becoming critical, and Mussolini knows that his throne is falling. The whole of Italy is waiting for the end of Fascism.. There has been serious rioting at Milan and Turin, and the Germans have been obliged to take over complete control of the area. Industrial sabotage, the correspondent says, is taking place on a terrifio scale. The great Fiat works have been practically put out of action as tha result of sabotage and British raiding. Courts martial in Northern Italy have convicted 445 Italians of sabotaging war material according to reports reaching Switzerland. Courts have been established in Milan and Trieste to deal with saboteurs and defeatists, whpsa numbers are reported to be growing as hunger increases the_ war weariness among the Italian civilian population. A British war prisoner released under the Syrian armistice says he received the impression while in an Italian hospital that doctors, nurses, and guards' sympathised with the British cause and considered the war Germany’s affair and not theirs. A message from Rome states that tha rationing of bread to 7oz daily to operate on October 1 was announced after a meeting of Cabinet.. A supplementary ration of 3ldz daily will be allowed to workers generally, with a further Sioz for those engaged in particularly arduous labour. Mussolini stated that the wheat crop was insufficient to cover the needs of the Italian population and the occupied areas.

GERMANS IN CONTROL ANTI-FASCIST RISING UNLIKELY (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 11.10 a.m.) 'RUGBY, Sept. 28. While many reports continue to reach. London illustrating the great w - ave of resistance and sabotage which is sweeping over the German-occupied countries of Europe, messages describing the conditions in Italy indicate that she is hardly less under the control of Germany than the nations conquered by the ‘Nazi forces, and hardly less restless. Tho introduction of bread rationing throughout the country is taken to confirm the report of tho seriousness of the food situation in Italy. The Columbia ‘Broadcasting Company’s correspondent at Ankara said: “ The Germans are active in Italy, nob only as a military but also as a. bureaucratic force, and their presence is openly resented by the people and the high Fascist Party members alike. _ German officials now occupy key posts in all the Italian ministries.” Suggestions, however, that the deep unrest which undoubtedly docs exist as a result of Italy’s dislike for war and for the Germans, and tho waning faith in the Fascist system may soon result in tho breakup of tho country and the overthrow of its Government arc considered by competent observers to be, to say the least, premature. The very fact that the authoritarian Fascist system has been in control in tho country fop so many years means that every important position in the country is held by members of the party, and every kkely leader of an anti-Fascist rising has been either eliminated or is under close surveillance. , The virtual control which the Nazis have taken of the country will also considerably hamper any practical or organised expression of this growing unrest. RHINELAND EVACUATION

GERMANS FLEE TO HOLLAND LONDON, September 27. Forty thousand people, who hav# been evacuated from the Rhineland to escape 11.A.F. bombings, have arrived in Amsterdam, and the Germans have made arrangements to house still more evacuees in Holland. The Rhineland has been seriously damaged, according to Dutch sources, and Dusseldorf resembles Rotterdam after the German bombing. CLASP-KNIFE OPERATION SAILOR'S LIFE SAVED LONDON, September 27. f An operation performed in a ship's boat with a sailor’s clasp knife to remove pieces of shrapnel pressing on. bis lungs saved the life of a British sailor. His shin had been torpedoed, and with 17 others ho was adrift m an open boat in the Atlantic. Tho sailor’s arm was shattered, his foot was injured, and lie had a serious wound in the back. His comrades decided to operate, and the second mate cauterised the clasp knife with a flame, and, probing 'tho wound, located and removed the shrapnel. The men nursed their injured comrade in their arms to prevent tho heavy seas from washing him overboard. The lifeboat was picked up after four days and a_-half. A surgeon said the operation with the clasn knife undoubtedly saved the sailor’s life. NOW REPORTED SAFE MISSING RAF. PILOT fSritish Official Wireless.) tßec. 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 23. It is now known that one of tho R.A.F. fighters, reported as lost in operations carried out over Northern France yesterday, is safe.