HEAD OF THE STATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26177, 13 June 1946, Page 5

HEAD OF THE STATE

SIGNOR DE GASPERI CABINET’S DECISION ROME, June 11. Cabinet this morning decided that Signor de Gasperi would immediately assume the functions of the head of the Slate. Signor de Gasperi communicated this to King Umberto. While the national holiday marking the birth of the new republic was being celebrated throughout Italy, King Umberto stood fast in the Quirinal Palace, and Cabinet held an emergency meeting to end the incongruous situation. Disturbances continued in Rome and Naples. Six were killed and 14 injured in Monarchist demonstrations in Naples last night, and in a new flareup to-day, police and troops in full war kit, armed with automatic weapons, used four armoured cars against a huge crowd of Monarchist demonstrators when they attempted to storm Communist headquarters, situated alongside police headquarters. The crowd, undeterred by the show of force, chocked up the armoured cars’ wheels, overpowered the occupants, and captured the cars. Reinforcements were necessary before the cars could be recaptured. The police began firing against the crowd after the demonstrators seized empty artillery shells used to decorate the square and flung them at the police. In Rome the police seized Monarchist flags and broke up demonstrations in the central Piazza Venezia. The demonstrators resisted fiercely, and several police were injured. One person was killed. Earlier this morning Monarchists in Napies hoisted the Monarchist flag over St. James’s Palace in Municipal square Handbills were distributed in the city which asserted that the vote for the republic violated the 1860 agreement uniting Italy under the House of Savoy. The handbills called for a separate southern State. They recalled that the analysis of the plebiscite vote showed that the north was almost 2 to 1 in favour of a republic and the south 2 to 1 in favour of the Monai chy.