THE STATUS OF ROME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25306, 17 August 1943, Page 2

THE STATUS OF ROME

There are two comments which are worthy of notice on the decision of the Badoglio Government to declare Rome an open city. The first is that the intention to secure the immunity of Rome from future attack may mean that the Italians no longer propose to defend Southern Italy. The second, attributed to the military correspondent of the Observer, the London weekly paper, suggests that, with the campaign in Sicily virtually over, the declaration of Rome as an open city may affect the next steps in Allied strategy, the assumption being that the use of the capital as the starting-point for invasion could no longer be envisaged, and that it would be “ a slow and ponderous process ” if the Allies were required to fight their way from the toe of Italy to strategic objectives in the centre. These are intriguing, if contradictory, viewpoints. It is, however, by no means certain that the Allied Command has an invasion of Italy actually in view as a logical development of the occupation of Sicily. Possession of Northern Italy would obviously confer important advantages on the Allies, particularly in providing airfields from which the attack on German objectives so far protected by distance from Bomber Command’s bases in Britain might be intensified. But the Sicilian airfields could themselves be used effectively to complete the Allies’ bombing cover of Europe. And it may be that, if the demand of the Italian people for peace is not met, Italian objectives will be subjected to even heavier bombing assault from Sicily than they have yet suffered, as part of a wider plan to screen invasion operations actually undertaken at a point or points in the Balkan Peninsula. These, however, are matters for the future to decide. Immediate interest will be focused on the effort to spare Rome from further bombing attack, and it is clear that as yet the Allied authorities are by no means satisfied of the good faith of the Badoglio Government in moving to have the city declared open. As has been emphasised, if Rome is to be spared the Allies must first be satisfied that its military and production facilities are no longer being used against them. And this means that, in the words of one correspondent, Rome will be unable to make any further contribution of any kind to the Axis war effort. .The Badoglio Government’s declaration would be meaningless, for instance, if the Germans decided to over-rule it and to continue the use of Roman facilities for the furtherance of their own ends in Italy. Whether it lies in the power of Marshal Badoglio to give guarantees of Rome’s demilitarisation in terms explicit enough to warrant acceptance of the request for immunity remains to be seen. It is a large task to undertake the vacation of all military barracks and Government offices, the closing of all munitien and other war factories, and the neutralisation of all transport so far as military convenience is concerned. Yet these are the only conditions on which a request for the declaration of Rome as' an open city can be considered. The voice of the Italian people, in its clamorous demand for peace on any terms, may yet have to be decisively heard before the question of Rome’s status is decided.