WAR PRISONERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19337, 29 May 1937, Page 12

WAR PRISONERS

_ -*- ITALIANS IN SPAIN TRICKED INTO SERVICE "UNKNOWN DESTINATION" LONDON, April 24. Viscountess Hastings, who is Hie daughter of a former member of the Household of the King of Italy, has completed her talks at Valencia with the Italian prisoners of war. according to the Manchester Guardian. She says she gathered that many of the private soldiers were surprised and angi'y when they arrived at Cadiz and found that they' were expected to fight Spaniards, They had been allowed only to guess their destination. "The authorities allowed me to spend two days as freely as J liked with the prisoners," Viscountess Hastings told the Press Association. "1. found them installed in a spacious building which had once been a convent. As my talks wont on various groups were exercising on the pleasant open courts of the place. Tho food rations seemed good. Each prisoner also has a morning allowance of coffee, which is all that is allowed in my hotel in Valencia. Training in Abyssinia "These countrymen of mine seemed on the best of term's with the captors," she

went on, “Tile commanding oilieer, a major in the Italian Regular Army, said ho had never had more courteous treatment than from Spaniards—adding hastily, lest his loyalty were misunderstood, that this was true on both sides of the line. “I found a great difference between the accounts given mo by the four ollieers and many private, soldiers with whom I talked. This was particularly true regarding the circumstances in which they came to Spain. I discovered that, although all had been captured in the Guadalajara retreat during the second and third weeks of March, they had arrived in Spain at various times between the end of .November and March 8. “A month before in Italy they bail volunteered for a, two-year service in labour battalions for Abyssinia, and had been sent to training camps. All bad been unemployed or did not earn enough to support their families. The attraction of the Abyssinian service lias been a promise of 500-lire bonus to be paid to their families during their absence. This training, however, was interrupted bv a call for volunteers for ‘an unknown destination.’ Financial Inducement The financial inducement offered was 20 lire a day to be paid to their families' while they were out of Italy. Their own pay was the regular army rate of G lire a day, two-thirds of which, however, had to he returned as payment, for food and one-third kept as spending money. 1n ■ the insurgent territory these lire have, been reckoned as Franco's pesetas and paid at an even exchange. “Since leaving Italy the only communication the families of these men have had with them has been through the Government censor in Rome, and none of them now here has so far heard that the promised 20 lire has been received,”- continued Lady Hastings. , “I gathered that many of the private soldiers were surprised and angry when they arrived at Cadiz and found that they were expected to fight Spaniards. They had been allowed only to guess their destination. “Were you not sure when you came past Gibraltar?” i asked. “ 'Yes. Then

we realised \\ !i:i 1. we were in lor,’ the Italian replied. ‘Before that .wo had only I lie words “unknown destination” to go liy, and you know that all seas look the same.’ “Some,” Lady Hastings continued, ‘ *a.ss<* rted that tiiev had suspected their destination, and I asked a group of artisans what, they expected to find in Spain. 1 had grouped men of the same trade together, believing that they would have interests in common, although they came fnjm different parts of Italy. “They said that they had heard at home that the Bolsheviks—by whom they seem to mean the Russians—hud torn down the cities in Spain, and that skilled Italian workers would he needed to re--Ihii lit I hem. Some police work had to lie done first, alter which Italian artisanship would he needed. One or two said that they were surprised on their arrival to find any Spanish cities standing, especially on the (Government side. “They again emphasised the fact that enough different trades were represented among them to reconstruct the big towns If was clear that, their present feeling, in view of the disaster at Guadalajara, was relief at escape from a, warlike reality very different from what they had expected. ’’