DOCILE PRISONERS

Evening Star, Issue 24918, 16 July 1943, Page 3

DOCILE PRISONERS

ANTIPATHY TO FASCIST REGIME LONDON, July 15. A combined British Press party which landed in Sicily on Tuesday says: "We drove for many hours far inland through territory already in Allied hands. After.only three days of fighting, everywhere there is evidence of how slight the defence has been. In the first place, it was remarkable to see scores of Allied ships lying with impunitv off this hostile coast. Throughout the day we did not see a single enemy plane. " Everywhere on the roads we met prisoners* as smiling, docile, and lightly guarded as those we saw on the roads in Tunisia. Here and there by the roadside we saw captured guns.and tanks, most of them undamaged. Several towns have been bombed, and it has been found that this brings the garrison out to surrender pretty promptly. Our troops report that much sniping is still

going on in areas from which the main body of the enemy has withdrawn." Sicilians in some villages have blotted out the "Evviva 11 Duce" and " Evviva Mussolini " signs on walls, and substituted - " Evviva George the Sixth." The population in other parts seems to be entirely inert and uninterested. . Peasants and village , folk sit on the pavements as the troops conie iti and scarcely look up. The people are not hostile, and when questioned show marked antipathy to the Fascist regime and the Germans.