DISTURBANCES ARE AVERTED BY PRECAUTIONS

Grey River Argus, 20 April 1948, Page 5

DISTURBANCES ARE AVERTED BY PRECAUTIONS

(Rec. 9.55) LONDON, April 19. Final voting in the general elections for the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Senate, which began on Sunday, may well reach from 85 to 90 per cent, of the electorate.. The voting will be resumed this (Monday) morning, and the booths will finally be closed to-day at noon (G.M.T.). . The votes for the two hundred and thirty-seven Senators will be counted first,' and these will indicate the general trend. The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent at Rome says: The troops and police were fully mobilised on Sunday and to-day in Rome and other cities. They have been standing by with light tanks, armoured cars, planes and jeeps. They are ready to deal with any disorders. None are reported. The Minister of the Interior said in a final warning: “If the freedom of the poll is compromised, we shall not hesitate to take the most radical measures, even to the extent of suspending the elections.” , The Times correspondent at Rome said the polling on Sunday passed off smoothly, with a universal response. Even the Church rallied its followers. Lorries brought dozens of Nuns to perform their important secular duty. Many invalids were carried to the polls in the arms of their friends, on stretchers, from ambulances, or hobbled there on crutches.

Sunday’s Voting TAMPERING WITH VOTING PAPERS?

ROME, April 19 On Sunday morning the voting in the Italian general elections opened quietly. No disorders were reported during the day. However, lhe Minister of the Interior announced that officials had found irregularities during the polling and warned the heads of polling booths to watch the voting forms for traces of writing and othei - signs that they have been been tampered with. Anti-Communists showed correspondents aluminium rings with graphite points, which, they claimed, had been issued to Popular Front scrutineers. They alleged the scutineers could invalidate voting papers by drawing, lines across them with the. rings.

LEFTISTS ALLEGE PLOTS '

Popular Front headquarters accused Right Wing elements of election plots. It said that in one area voting papers were found marked with the Christian Democrat symbol before voting started. Communists said local authorities in Udine had listed 300 names from Trieste who were ineligible. Right Wingers made similar counter charges against the Popular Front. Communists in Milan protested against police patrols, armoured cars and troops touring villages. They said: “The reactionaries are trying to intimidate us.” Most pons were more than 75 per cent. M which lhe Right Wing consider favourable to them. Rome announced a 76 per cent. poll. Other percentages ranged from §6 in Venice to 55 in Naples. Awoman named Clotidle Furlnl, who is more than 100 years old, voted at Coneselli in the province of Venice.

rolling throughout the country was neavy. voters queueing outside the booths at the first light of dawn. Hundreds were outside every Rome booth at the opening at 8 a.m. local time. Two policemen stood inside each booth. Carabieinri were on duty outside, while police riot squaa=> and troops in jeeps patrolled the streets.

Poll officials were ordered to give the ballot papers open, not folded. Strict checking of identities slowed up the voting ana caused queueing. The voting oassed- without incident. The 330,01)0 soldiers, police, and guards were not needed. The Prime Minister. Signor de Gasperi, attended Mass in St Peter’s and then voted at a nearby booth, where the queue cheered and give nim precedence

The Communist leader, Signor Togliatti, met journalists and cameramen and then cast his vote. He apologised to election officials for delay while he posed for photographs. Signor Togliatti, writing in the Communist Party newspaper, “Unita,” forecasts a troubled future for Italy if the Communists did not share in the Government

. Voting will continue to-morrow. Definite results are not expected until Wednesday, but early forecasts suggest that the Communists will be beaten by a convincing margin, A correspondent of the London Times said: Women being 54 per cent, of the electorate, hold the balance. Communist husbands and a threat of famine in a Communist Italy are important arguments for thousands of home-keepers. Communists tell farmers, especially in the south, that the Marshall Plan will cut profit from their crops—which are expected to be bumper ones this year. Tne villagers, whose children weansnappy American outfits, do not really believe them. Country folk in the north have made money and they'want to safeguard it. Behind the Christian Democrats, led by the present Prime Minister, is the moral influence of the Church. Working for this party, and in varying degrees for all the other anti-Commun-ist parties, are the Marshall Plan, the Western. Powers’ gesture on Trieste, and their championship of Italy’s admission to the United Nations.

Of 97 parties the main ones with votes polled in 1946, are: Christian Democrats, 8,000,000; Popular Democratic Front, 9,000,000; Socialist Unity or moderate solialists, who recently split from the socialists, may poll 1,000,000 or more; the National Bloc, including the right wing, nearly 3,000.000: Republican, 1,000,000; Italian Socialist Movement formed less than a year ago and alleged to be neofaspist, Action Party, and Labour Democrats, which merged with the Popular Democratic Front, about 500,000.

ANTICIPATIONS A private opinion of the poll m Milan indicated that the Christian Democrats would win in Rome. Bookmakers offered odds of between nine to two and 11 to two against a Communist victory. ' Political observers believe that the Russian rejection of the Western Powers’, move to return Trieste to Italy will lose the Communists tens of thousands of There is little doubt that Russia nas been outmanoeuvred by the Western Powers in the election.