ITALIAN UNREST

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 July 1945, Page 4

ITALIAN UNREST

GAOL OUTBREAK LONDON, July 23. A correspondent wilo was in ’the Regina Coeli gaol when the roof was set on fire said the roof crashed down in a shower of blazing sparks. Several prisoners atempted to escape in the confusion, but they were seen by the guards, who opened fire. One man was seriously wounded, and' a padre was admitted inside the steel gate of the prison to administer to him.

Just before the firing commenced the correspondent saw a transport carrying British soldiers armed with rifles arrive. The governor of the prison, in reply to a question by the correspondent as to whether the troops had taken part in the firing, said that all the shots had been fired by Italians. About 2000 of the prisoners are criminals, the remainder being political prisoners, mostly Fascists. They are armed with iron bars torn from the windows and gratings of the prison. There has been a large amount of? activity and shouting going on in < the prison, and the authorities are expecting a mass attempt to break out. The roads round the prison are thronged with armed police, 'and a number of Italian armoured cars are drawn up on a bridge over the Tiber, facing the gates of the prison. They have trained their guns on the prison gates. DIGGING A TUNNEL (Recd. 11.45 a.m.) ROME, July 23. A new and more serious riot broke out in the Regina Coeli gaol when guards discovered great groups of prisoners digging an escape tunnelunder a wall while other groups were •engaged in throwing tiles from the roof against the police to distract attention from the tunnellers. The fire, which raged all night, caused the collapse of the prison's central tower. -Large numbers of prisoners’ relations gathered outside the prisafti and showed a dangerous hostility to the police. The so-called partisan group reportedly instigated the mutiny of the prisoners. They are dissatisfied with the slowness of judicial procedure. PORT FOR SWITZERLAND LONDON, July 23. The Swiss radio says that the Italian Premier (Signor Parri) has announced that the Italian port of Savona, on the Gulf of Genoa, is to be placed at Switzerland’s disposal. He added that it would take some time to reconstruct the port. NEWSPAPER NAMES. ZURICH, July 23. Allied intervention has produced a compromise in the disturbances in Turin in connection with the production of the newspaper “La Stampa.” “La Stampa” now appears as “La Nuova Stampa,” and “La Gazetta del Popolo” as “La Gazetta DTtalia.” Several former Fascist editors have been dismissed and replaced by members of the Resistance Movement.