Mussolini Denounces Victor Emmanuel

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 223, 20 September 1943, Page 4

Mussolini Denounces Victor Emmanuel

“ Our Movement Will be Irresistible” (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.). Received Sunday, 7.55 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 18. Mussolini, broadcasting over a Ger-man-controlled radio, denounced King Victor Emmanuel and urged Italians to take up arms by the side of Germany aqd Japan. He explained that he waited for some time before speaking to Italians because “after a period of moral isolation it was necessary lor me to regain contact with the world." He described at length his “removal" and recapture by Hitler’s men which, he said, was only a trifle compared with the terrible tragedy into which the Italian nation was plunged on July 26 hy the “Liberal Democratic Constitutional Government. ’ ’ “Italians, including Fascists, with their unbelievable optimism, thought it impossible that such plans could nave been made against the party, against the regime and against the entire nation. But the measures taken after July 15, reveal that all was prepared to undo the achievements of twenty years, extinguish the glory of those twenty years and remove every memory of the creation of the Empire. They are to-day searching for some compromise, for some Justification for him who bears the responsibility of it all. “We, while claiming our full responsibilies, wish to define precisely the responsibilities of others, above all those of the King who knows that h# himself has been found out, but has failed to resign as all Italians expected. He can and must be brought directly to account. It is his dynasty which represented the centre of defeatism against German propaganda although he himself declared war. “His heir took over the command of the southern army and he never appeared on the battlefield. I am convinced that the House of Savoy worked it out down to the smallest detail, carrying it out in cooperation with its accomplice Badoglio and all his cowardly generals as well as some members of the Fascist Prvty. ’ * Mussolini said the negotiations between the Governments of Rome and London were initiated before his arrest. He accused the King of betraying Germany, continuing to deny that even after the signature of the Armistice such negotiations were in existence. He described the Armistice terms as “the hardest which could possibly he imagined" and said their enemies did not hide the way in which they despised Italians. Every Italian would be affected thereby. The Italians had lost all their gains in the Adriatic and lonian Seas and Southern France. The Balkans Army was dispersed and disarmed by its own Allies, tho humllated Navy had surrendered to Malta which was and would to an even greater extent be a stronghold of British Imperialism in the Mediterranean. The Air Force had salvaged a considerable part of itß equipment but had practically no power of action. “It was not Fascism which betrayed the monarchy but the monarchy which betrayed Fascism. Once the monarchy fails to accomplish its task it has lost the right to exist. The basic tendency of Italy has always been more republican than monarchist. The new State is to be a National Socialist State—a Fascist State in the widest sense in which the word is understood. In its initial period in expectation that our movement will be irresistible we postulate the following demands: Firstly: We will again take up arms side by side with Germany, Japan and our other allies. Only by blood can such an ignomious page be expunged from the history of our fatherland. Secondly: We -will embark immediately upon the reconstruction of our armed forces which are to be grouped around the militia. Only those who bear arms and fight for our creed can conquer. Thirdly: The romaval of traitors, especially those who on July 25 professed allegiance to the new Government and thus joined the ranks of our enemies after having been members of the party for twenty years. Fourthly: The removal of plutocracy and the establishment of a social base on which the State can be resurrected founded on the labour of its citizens.