The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1943. ITALY'S TRIAL.

Evening Star, Issue 24916, 14 July 1943, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1943. ITALY'S TRIAL.

Gexeiui, Eisenhower has had reason to be satisfied with the first results of the Allies' landings in Sicily, ■•' The bridgeheads gained have been steadily extended, and possession of Syracuse gives" an important vantage point to the invaders. All this, with tho light losses which till now have been the price, affords matter for satisfaction, even though the main forces of German ar.d Italian , defenders have Still to be met. The first news of the landings, we are told, caused an enormous sensation in Berlin. The war of aggression has become a' war of defence for the Axis Powers. If Sicilian soil is being threatened to-day, 'the natural question of their peoples must be how soon will it be Italian, then . German. The fears felt by l)r Goebbels of Jiow that thought may affect their nerves can be seen in his'efforts to reassure them.

Early German appraisals of the landings, it has been said, did not minimise their success- and potential- importance. But that tone was soon abandoned. As the Allies continued to extend their footing, Axis broadcasts became miracles of false comfort; Italians and Germans, Berlin reported, had dispersed the invading units, cut them off from their supplies, wiped 'out all the parachute" troops, and narrowed down the bridgeheads. Taking its cue from Berlin, Home told how the process of liquidation of the enemy was proceeding in r a most satisfactory manner; all the signs were that enemy "hopes had been shattered. After that it Avas not disquieting to admit that the hardest fighting was still to come. Goebbels may be repeating tho blunders which he made as a propagandist before Tunisia fell. Up to" the very last second the German public were left under the impression that by superior strategy von Arnirn had manoeuvred Alexander into a perilous position. On the day when the Allied spearheads had dislocated the whole Axis front his news service asserted that " thanks to their mobile tactics, the Axis troops succeeded in the course of yesterday's fighting in splitting up the total area of the battle into, individual sectors." On the following da v. when Tunis and Bizort.r had already fallen, it was claimed that " the resistance of the Axis is unshaken." And so the final, ignominious collapse came upon Germans as a double shock. It is to be feared that Dr Goebbels succeeds best ns a fair weather propagandist. Mussolini has told the:Axis forces in Sicily: "I am-with yOii in spirit." What is really worrying him. no doubt, along with other planners of a simple, babes-in-the-wood act of deception and destruction which has proved something different in the working out. is where" he will be iri body when the last stronghold falls. Italians fought better than Germans in the last Tunisian act and may do so again, but a natural question for them to ask would be what they are fighting for at all. Their rulers have imagined terms for a peace with Italy calculated to j frighten them from that course. Some of "the supposed terms are ridiculous, and it can be asked of others, such as the cession of outer strong points abused and temporary control of a lost colonial Empire by the Allies, whether thev threaten real injury to. one Italian with a mind not bent on aggression. From the Allies' side the terms have been stated as follows:—" (1) For the Fascist regime and the armed force supporting it. unconditional surrender. (2) For the Italian people, freedom to choose anv kind of non-Fascist Government and thus become a respected member of the family of free peoples. It is for Italiaus to choose.