UNHAPPY LAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25111, 30 December 1942, Page 3

UNHAPPY LAND

—♦- — ITALY FEARS INVASION NAZI DOMINATION RESENTED LONDON, Dec. 28. Ci-own Prince Urnberto and members of the Italian High Command have protested to King Emmanuel that Italy is virtually undefended. They demanded in a strongly-worded memorandum that Italy's main attention should be diverted to the defence of Corsica and 'Sardinia and ''the restoration of Italy's full independence with elimination of foreign influence."

This is stated in a message from Lausanne quoted by Moscow. Among the proposed measures for home security arc demands that all Italian troops be withdrawn from the Russian front, the formation of women's battalions for coastal defence, and the calling up of 16-year-old boys for military service. According to a New York message, the London correspondent of the Herald-Tribune states that the recent air raids and fear of an Allied invasion of the Italian mainland from Africa have started a wild run on Italian banks. Reports to this effect have reached London banking circles. Wide-scale hoarding has also developed, leading to expansion of the paper money issue, thus swelling the inflation which has already inflicted acute misery on the Italian people. Mr Charles Politti, Governor of New York State, broadcasting to Italy, appealed to Italians to throw out their leaders. He declared that their only hope of peace and liberty lay in a United Nations' victory. American people expected that the Italians would soon be liberated from the yoke of Hitler and Mussolini. UNDERCURRENTS IN ITALY AN UNEASY PARTNERSHIP A correspondent of the Observer contributed to an issue of that London paper an article which surveyed the. position in Italy as it existed three months ago. The Fascist press (the correspondent writes in the course of the article) contrives to present to its readers a certain attractiveness in the general make-up of the war news, but at the same time it confronts a discriminate reader with a problem: What are, underneath the surface and the gloss, the real feelings and relations between Fascists and Nazi Governments?

Gagging Gayda

That these relations are not all milk and honey there are many signs, and some interesting ones can be gathered from a study of the Fascist papers themselves. On August 26 Gayda wrote a lengthy article in the Giornale d'ltalia dealing afresh with the Italian aspirations, and expanding on the theme of that " lebensraum" which Italy could hope for after the war. No sooner had Gayda printed his article and the Fascist press commenced to expatiate upon it than Dr Goebbels arrived in Venice, ostensibly to attend the Film Exhibition, and he put a prompt stop to this flow of Mussolinian grandeur. Again, while Berlin and Vichy are flirting and conniving to turn the French citizens and workers into Nazi slaves, Rome is clamouring at the top of her voice against Vichy. It was indeed the official review, Relazioni Internazionali, which recently wrote that Vichy's co-opera-tion with Germany is " only a manoeuvre to gain a free hand against Italy." A rather strange view to take of a much-needed collaborator of one's bosom friend.

Moreover, the Critica Fascista, the leading and most authoritative political review of the Fascist Party, has recently published an article on German-Italian relations the candour of which is somewhat surprising. To quote: " Collaboration between Italy and Germany has hardly yet begun, but what has been done up to now has not had particularly good results. The Germans underestimate to a dangerous degree Italy's contribution to the Axis war. The majority of Germans, including the circles that should know, do not realise the conditions governing Italy's contribution to the war. They have entirely erroneous conceptions of the food requirements of the Italian people." It had happened quite recently that the Nazis had told the Italians without mincing words that they are " too negligent," and that they take " too little interest in the war " and are " not willling enough to make sacrifices." Axis Discord

In the face of these facts and evidence one is entitled to question the so-called harmony and perfect understanding between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Every person of intelligence in Italy knows perfectly well that Germany is striving with increasing tempo to reduce Italy to a position of complete economic slavery. One important point of the German-Italian Agreement was the elimination of all competition between the industries of the two countries. Cynicism goes to the limit; since Italy's industries are controlled by Germany and the supply of raw materials depends entirely on Germany, the Italian industrialists are left in no doubt of the risk they and Italy's industry are running. It would be only necessary to reduce further the imports of coal, iron, or oil, or to stop them altogether, to bring Italian industry to a standstill. And to this must be added the lack of enthusiasm of the Italian workers drafted for work in Germany. The reluctance of the Italian workers to transfer themselves to Germany is such that in more than one case men were ostensibly called up for service in the army and then taken to Germany in sealed trains. In June, 1940, there were only 28,000 Italian workers in the Reich; in June, 1941. there were 300,000, and Germany was demanding double that number within the next few months. Thus there is an undeniable state of malaise between the two principal Axis partners in Europe. It would be important to know to what extent this atmosphere is pervading the people of Italy. Knowing the Italian character, one cannot imagine that this inner feeling of the Fascist Government and bosses is kept completely secret. It is easy to imagine the cafes and drawing-rooms buzzing with comment. What the result of it might be is another matter. The Italians did not want to go to war, and we can be sure that they are completely sick of it. One could quote from the Fascist press a lengthy list of examples, the most symptomatic of which is the increasing number of people, who no longer care a jot, being expelled from the party for having expressed their personal feelings or told the Government that

they have had enough of war restrictions and privations for Germany. To deduce from this the imminence of something decisive would be to succumb to wishful and dangerous thinking, but the repercussions of a Vatican attitude to the war are another matter. Let us remember that from the religious point of view the Italians are by far the most homogeneous people in Europe: more than 99.5 per cent, of the population are members of the Catholic Church, and the church has in Italy an influence and a power that Mussolini himself has always been tactful enough not to disregard. If it were to happen that the Vatican should take a stronger and more definite denunciatory attitude to the excesses of National-Socialism the political and spiritual effect upon the Italian people would be tremendous. In the process of disintegration of the Fascist regime the power of the religious factor—that is to Say of the Vatican—will not be. the least factor.