SOUTH TYROLEAN TROOPS MUTINY

Northern Advocate, 10 January 1936, Page 5

SOUTH TYROLEAN TROOPS MUTINY

REFUSED ID LEAVE FORJAR IL DUCE REVILED; CONFLICT CURSED [United Press Assoclation.-By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright .] (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, January 8. rpHE “DAILY TELEGRAPH’S” CORRESPONDENT AT INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA, SAYS RELIABLE INFORMATION FROM MERANO, SOUTH TYROL, INDICATES THAT , MUTINOUS SCENES ATTENDED THE DEPARTURE FOR ABYSSINIA' OF 500 SOLDIERS OF THE STH REGIMENT. The men noisily refused to leave home. They tore down, broke and bayoneted pictures of Mussolini from the walls of barracks.

Officers called on those willing to go to the front, and only 18 responded. The remainder threatened violence when they were told they would be entrained under escort.

The officers fatally shot with revolvers two of the soldiers, and severely wounded another.

The men threw down their equipment on the station platform and reviled! Signor Mussolini and cursed the war, after the outbreak of which 1650 recruits are reported to have escaped across the frontiers to avoid service.

An official' German news agency states that the Merano mutiny occurred! on December 26. In the ensuing fight, many officers were seriously injured. Revolt Spreading. The Berlin correspondent of the “Evening, Standard” in a later despatch , says the revolt of . Germanspeaking people in South Tyrol is spreading with increasing intensity. It is learned on unimpeachable authority that two interment camps for deserters have been established in the Bavarian Alps. The German Government is anxious to avoid irritating Italy, and declined to allow visitors.

Some deserters have found work in German cities, and the remainder are supported by South Tyrolean relief organisations. Similar camps exist in Switzerland and Yugo-Slavia. In the latter country they are specially numerous. The Yugo-Slavian Government, like Germany, is withholding information, but it is believed that the capips are so crowded that deserters are being lodged with peasants. Italy’s Denials.

The Italian Government has issued a mass of contradictions of various anti-Italian reports, including denials of the use of poison gas, of the bombing of the Egyptian Red Cross at Dagabur and of the Abyssinian capture of Tembien. ,y

Italy also denies the. mutiny at Merano, declaring that all detachments have departed for the front in perfect order, and amid the enthusiasm of the population. The Government also denies reports that numerous deserters are escaping to other States, and points out that the passes into Bavaria, Austria and Yugoslavia are carefully guarded. Nevertheless, it is reported that 200 deserters entered South Germany today, and that there are now 3000 in Bavaria.