ITALIAN POLITICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25384, 16 November 1943, Page 5

ITALIAN POLITICS

MAKESHIFT GOVERNMENT BADOGLIO’S EXPLANATIONS RUGBY; Nov. 14. Correspondents state that when Count Sforza and Benedetto Croce refused to join a Government unless the King abdicated and the Crown Prince renounced the succession and the Crown Prince’s young son became King under a regency. Marshal Badoglio told then! that the “ first thing to do was to free Italy of the Germans —to make radical political changes now would only upset the liberated zone, and thus hamper the Allies, and would forestall the wishes of the whole of the Italian people, which could be expressed only after all Italy was freed.” Meanwhile, say correspondents, there are two further developments. Experts of the Allied Commission were arriving in Italy ready to : to work on problems of liberated lit. . and the political leaders decided that Marshal Badoglio should resign and leave the task of government to politicians. So Marshal Badoglio decided to reform the Government, with experts acting nominally as under-secretaries, but with powers of Ministers, so that they can begin to work with the Allied experts, and he has promised to retire as soon as the Allies reach Rome. The King has agreed. As an illustration of the far-reaching loyalty of the Italians to the King, Marshal Badoglio has pointed out that all the Italian Ambassadors, except the one in Berlin, had preferred arrest and a concentration camp rather than foreswear allegiance to the House of Savoy. The Ambassador at Berlin was suffering extremely harsh treatment. Marshal Badoglio said Italy had recognised Russia as a co-belligerent, and the Communist Party was legalised in Italy, and was free to publish a newspaper. The trade unions were being re-established, and 100 Fascists were already in concentration camps in the liberated zone. He hoped soon to see Italian mountain troops in action against the Germans. Marshal Badoglio said: “The leaders of each party have been liberated. They favoured the establishment of a completely constitutional Government, leaving me only military affairs. I then suggested that„the King should form a Government bv placing in each Ministry technical experts ready to work with the Allied Commission. The King approved this plan. I shall now complete the Government with undersecretaries authorised to deal with matters pertaining to each Ministry. Thus the necessary administrative work will not be held in abeyance, the causes of disturbances in liberated zones will be avoided, and the desires of the leaders of all political parties will be met. “For myself, once we reach Rome I will be delighted to remove so heavy a burden into more expert hands and into the care of more youthful energies. I am happy to have assumed, under an order from the King, the responsibility of the armistice and the declaration of war against Germany, and also to have collaborated fully with the efforts which the British and Americans have made, and are making, to free Italy.”