ITALY AND WAR

Grey River Argus, 20 August 1940, Page 6

ITALY AND WAR

An Unwilling People GERMANS IN ROME. AUCKLAND, August 17. “I don’t want to go to war or fight the English, but I will go wher e the Dace leads.” This was the attitude of the average Italian in Rome last May, as seen by an Aucklander, Mrs J. T. Butler, who returned by the Mariposa this week after a stay of many months in Italy. Mrs Butler left Genoa by the American liner Manhattan when Mussolini’s declaration of war was imminent, and she received news of it when the ship was entering New York Harbour.

There was .no will to war among the rank and file of the Italian people last year or until May of this year, when th c Fascist Government set out to create it, said Mr s Butler. They had no particular liking for Hitler or Nazi Germany, and asked for nothing better than to go on leading their industrious and peaceful lives. In Rome, a very cosmopolitan city, she met with nothing but friendliness, except on one occasion, when a man snatched away an English newspaper which she was reading in a cafe.

“Ordinarily posters are entirely banned in Rome,” she continued, “but one morning I went out to find that every street had been plastered with them overnight, and all abused England. Very soon there were processions of university students, obviously organised, because each of them was headed by a soldier carrying a standard. The first demonstration 1 saw included a coffin decked with red, white, and blue and two very tattered umbrellas. There was also a banner with the inscription: ‘Chamberlain has missed the autobus.’

“After this procession broke up 'he British Consulate was wrecked, and military guards had to be placed outside the' British and French Embassies. I was living in a hotel overlooking the squar e in front of the Piazza Venezia, Mussolini’s official residence, and from my window I saw many huge gatherings, which tha Duce sometimes honoured by appearing on the balcony. Th e shouts of ‘Duce! Duce!’ repeated in unison, had an almost hypnotic effect.” Although Italians wer o impressionable and easily roused by appeals to their emotions, said Mrs Butler, she. did not believe that this time they really wan’cd to fight. A good example was v hotel waiter who invited her to his honig in order that she might see his wife and baby. This man had been trained as a submarine engineer, and when he was given notice to report at a naval' depot he wept unashamedly. In the succeeding day s he grew visibly thinner, and his misery was really pathetic. Rome was lull of Germans in th? weeks befor c Italy’s declaration, and the Nazis were very active. It was even reported that th e Embassy supplied all, th f . anti-Brilish posters .Many of th; ardent supporters of Hitlerism could be easily identified by their arrogant bearing, but a number of others with whom she. became acquainted held very different viewsAmong them were a couple of news paper correspondents who had lived long in Italy and hoped most devoutly that they would never have to go back to Germany.

NON-NAZI GERMANS. When they were sure of not being overheard, many Germans would talk quite freely, although even then they ■seemed nervous. One man of 28 who had been in Poland after the invasion sadly told her that the storie s of atrocities there were not exaggerated, and that the worst had not been published. An officer of th e last war declared that if Italy joined in he would go back to Germany to fight, “If Germany loses, it will not be a good thing to b L > a German,” he said cynically, “If sh e wins, the world wilt be a great big nothing, and I shall not want to liv e an v longer.” Mrs Butler visited Libya last Easter and wa s introduced to the late Marshal Balbo by an officer who had accompanied him on his famous flight to North America. He was a charming man to meet, and it was not hard to believe th e reports that he had a real regard for Britain and the British.

As war drew nearer, she made many attempts to get a visa for the journey across Franc e to Britain, but without, success, and eventually she wa s obliged to take passage for New York. Her last memory of Italy was the spectacle of Italian soldiers on guard over the quay at Genoa, smilingjmd waving good-byes to the many nationalities that crowded the rail of th e liner.