VOICE OF THE VATICAN

Evening Star, Issue 25201, 14 June 1944, Page 7

VOICE OF THE VATICAN

NEW ZEALAND PRIEST BROADCASTS MESSAGES TO THE WORLD (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) "Some, jum 10. For throe years now a voice from Vatican City has been broadcasting happiness to .families throughout the world—tidings that missing friends and relatives, often thought .dead, wero prisoners in Axis hands. To-day the Vatican radio is silent because the retreating Germans have cut off the p'ower, but it i.s standing •toy ready to take up its scil'-ini'posed task once more. To-day I met the owner of the voice which lias read -out'so many listsof names to English-speaking countries. He is a Now Zealander, Father Owen Sneddeti, of Auckland. Father Snedtlen and Father John Flanagan, also from Aucklnad, have been nearly seven years in Rome, where they were studying on Italy's entry into the war. They are both old.boys of the Sacred Heart College, Auckland, and by a strange coincidence the driver of the truck in which I visited them, Allan Jagusch, is an old schoolmate of. both.. The two New Zealand priests were introduced to Mr P. Fraser when the Prime Minister visited the Vatican for an audience with the Pope. During the reign of the Germans in Rome there were many atrocities committed as reprisals on the civilian population, but the Germans punetiliousb respected the rights of the Vatican. Food was scarce, of course, and prices were incredibly high owing to a flourishing " black market." Fa-fcher Sneddon and Father Flanagan saw much of what was going on, and .brushed shoulders with Germans in the streets of Pome as often as their duties took them outside the walls of Vatican City. Their Vatican passport was enough to assure them of safety from enemy' guards, who sainted.-and passed; them through after a cursory inspection of their pass, which incidentally does not state.the- nationality of-'the bearer. .The Germans took them for"ltalians, while the Italians were just as stir" that they were German or Irish. GERMAN ATROCITIES. Father Sneddon vouched for the truth of the. current story of the assassination of 320 Italian prisoners. A corps of German conscripts, largely Austrian* who were over the normal military age. used to work on the outskirts of the city, and as they marched 'buck to then' barracks singing, as was their custom, someone hurled two bombs, which killed .'J2 soldiers. As a, reprisal the Germans took 10 times the number of Italian prisoners from the gao's and shot them without trial. Their bodies were later thrown into the old Roman catacombs, where they now lie among the bones of the early Christian martyrs. Any Roman citizen will tell Allied soldiers this story, and several have offered to ■take me to the spot. _ There are many other tales of oppression and atrocity, the .majority of which are equally true. It was no wonder that the population went almost mad with joy when the Allies "made thenentry. Now the two young New Zealand priests are continuing their studies in the more congenial atmosphere of British and American occupation of nonVatican Rome.