DIRECT FROM HITLER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 January 1944, Page 3

DIRECT FROM HITLER

ORDER FOR EXECUTION OF CIANO AND COLLEAGUES. ATTEMPT TO INTIMIDATE ANTI-NAZIS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, January 12. Mussolini did not participate in the trial of Count Ciano and the other former Fascist Party leaders, and neither did he submit a statement to the tribunal, says the “Daily Telegraph's” Zurich correspondent, quoting reports from Italy. • A firing party of 20 Black Shirt volunteers shot the condemned men. all of whom were accorded the privilege of not being shot in the back. They refused to have their eyes bound.- After the last volley was fired a major in command lifted Ciano's body and said: “Justice has been done. Long live the Duce,” Ciano’s remains will be placed in the family vault-at Leghorn. The correspondent adds that the order for the execution is believed to have come direct from Hitler. The true reason why the death penalty was enforced can be found in the Reich’s internal conditions. It was desired to cool the ardour of the anti-Nazi military cliques who might be contemplating a coup d’etat such as led to the overthrow of Mussolini.