BREAKING THE MAFIA

Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1928, Page 4

BREAKING THE MAFIA

ITALY’S WG TASK. PALERMO (.Sicily), June 26. Fascist Italy has destroyed the Alalia. The sinister power thut dominated Sicily for centuries—a power at first chivalrous in intent, even beneficent in some of its results, but in the end wholly criminal and malign—is dead. It has has been killed by a man whoso name is Cesare Alori. The story of his achievement is one of the romances of modern history. It*, is not too far-fetched a simile to, compare him with the knight who set forth single-handed to slay a dragon—and slew it.

Tho Alafia was a manv-headed monster with claws dug deep into the social structure of this ancient race. Cesare Mori and his devoted band of followers fought it .up and down the mountains and in the secret places of the towns. IVhere many others failed before them, they succeeded. The dragon is really dead. Dismembered fragments of it can still be discerned here and there in the wilderness, moving feebly and aimlessly, but they can do no harm, and steadily they are disappearing. The terror has been lifted from Sicily. Its ardent, kindly people find themselves blessed with a freedom of which they never dreamed. They have emreged from prison darkness into the light of day. Unaccustomed sunshine still blinds them, but slowly they are beginning to realise what freedom really means, and that there is such a thing in Sicily as a Government that can rule fairly and effi-

ciently. ISLAND SPELLBOUND

This niav sound extravagant, but it is literally true. The Alalia held Sicily spellbound throughout the ages. Tt was above and beyond the law of the land—it was the law itself, a law that condoned and encouraged murder, blackmail, extortion, ruthless pillage, merciless terrorism and almost every other form of oppression of rich and poor alike. It held the central and western portion of the island in complete subjection. Its pressure on the landowneis and peasants had brought about a condition of economic and agricultural chaos which could not have boon worse. The Alafia ruled wjD. impunity, well knowing neither its victims, nor the general public, which preserved a careful neutrality, would ever dare to utter a single word of complaint to tho authorities. A hundred persons might see a murder committed in broad daylight by a man known to them all, hut not one of the witnesses would give the impotent police tho slightest hint as to his identity. A CLEANING Ul*. Such was the state of affairs when Cesare Alori was entrusted by Alussolini with the herculean task of “cleaning up” Sicily. He was confronted .not by a single secret society with a central head that could be paralysed at one blow, but by hundreds of bands, a confused and indiscriminate collection of local groups of Afnfiosi, some of them deadly rivals, but united in the common purpose of controlling and coercing all grades of society. In tho mountains there were the rough, bearded hillmcn, all of them dead shots, looking rather like gamekeepers in their gaiters, jackets and tight caps, ravaging the countrysido with a kind of deadly courtesy and faithfully adhering to a code of friendship and enmity handed .down intact from the Middle Ages. In tho country districts where the Atafiosi were most active, along the. line of simple brigandage and systematic despoliation of other people’s property they battened on the landed proprietors by forcibly “administering” their estates to the verge <’ r insolvency, while not forgetting to pluck with equal thoroughness tli« peasant who liad only one cow and one cart. For this nefarious wor>they did not disdain to accept the aid of common criminals. Higher in the scale of the Alnfiosi were the head men of the small towns, who by theft and extortion had raised themselves from tile humblest positions, like Francesco Cucea, who began as a carter and finally became a provincial mayor and ended as a convict with a long list of murders to his discredit. Higher still were the so-called “sup-er-Mafiosi,”. the intelligentsia, who lived well, had a certain culture, and were the brains of this parasitic war society. The polite young agents who called on the rich residents of Palermo for “contributions,” which sometimes referred to “insurance,” were usually known by their yellow gloves. Thus tho poison of the Afafia permeated through many channels and in many ways to every part of the social system in Sieilv. FASCIST DRIVE. The story of its growth to power, the recital of its misdeeds during the years of its prosperity and, most of all, tho details of its dramatic disintegration at the hands of Cesare Alori are well worth being given at length, as T hope to give them in subsequent articles. Let it suffice here for me to convey some idea of tho result he lias obtained. Backed hv an imported force of Fascist militia, carabineers and supported by the local police, Cesare Alori began his wide drive against the Mafiosi just two years and five months | ago. Since then his men have gone through the mountains like a fine comb and sifted the suburbs of Pal- ; ermo and other towns through a sieve ‘ which liny let no malefactor escape. ,

Altogether some forty towns and J villages have been disinfected of Mafiosi. There has been a total of something like 3.000 detentions, a j certain number being temporary, ' yielding in the end, so far, 800 convictions, of which about 160 entailed sentences of penal servitude ranging from ten to thirty years and the remainder, sentences of one to ten years. Other Mafiosi have been summarily secluded under the police measure known as “Confino.” All the gangs of bandits in the hills have been broken np and the leaders, some of whom were outlaws of thirty years, are dead or in prison. Cattle stealing, formerly the chief industry of the rural Mafiosi, is absolutely non- existent. Murder is now a rare occurrence'instead of a casual incident of everyday life. Life and property are safe in the cities as well as in the country districts. Land values in all the Mafiosi-rid-den areas have increased greatly. Peasants freed from an iniquitous system of tribute, enjoy a degree of prosperity they never thought possible. Public security has improved To per cent. There is a new and unwonted respect for the law which for generations was merely a farce. TERROR REMOVED. Most important of all, the seal of terror has been removed from the lips

of the people, and, for the first time.' in their lives, they realise that they can tell the truth in open court without being found dead within a few days.

These undeniable results of Cesare Alori’s courageous campaign have filled the prisons of Sicily to overflowing and the good work still continues. Cesare Alori sits at his desk at tho Prefecture of Palermo directing this work of regeneration and beckoning fresh candidates to penal servitude. His work will not be finished with the extermination of the Afafia itself and not until tho memory of the terror has been permanently erased from the minds of the Sicilians. He must uproot a sentiment which is almost as firmly planted as the Christian religion itself.

He is tho great man of Sicily. Wherever he goes In the island the joyful peasants turn out to greet him with expressions of gratitude. Several weeks ago lie was motoring back to Palermo from Alessina, where he was present at the foundation of the local rotary club—Afori is an enthusiastic rotarian —and at one village where he stopped for his usual friendly conversation with the inhabitants, there were only twenty people assembled to meet him.

The spokesman in a little speech of welcome apologised for the small size of the delegation. “It was impossible for it to bo larger,” he added, “for all the other men are in gaol.”