FASCIST SALUTE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 244, 27 July 1937, Page 6

FASCIST SALUTE.

SCHIPA CONGRATULATED. A MESSAGE FROM ROME. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 26. “Bravo, Tito. I embrace you.” This cablegram were received by the Italian tenor, Tito Schipa, after the newspapers in Rome had reported the objections raised by a Sydney alderman to the Fascist salute being given at the Sydney Town Hall. The message was signed by Achille Starace, secretary of the Fascist National Party, and the singer believes it was sent at the instance of Signor Mussolini. Count Grandi (Italian Ambassador at London) cabled: “I read in the papers with pride your decided answer for giving the Roman salute. Bravo. In tliite way Fascists must respond. Cheerio.’’ A handsome man, vivacious and witty, Signor Schipa is a through passenger in the Mariposa for California on his return to Italy. He told an interviewer this morning that shaking hands among the Fascisti was forbidden. “I do not shake hands any more,” he said in broken English. “I salute in the Roman fashion—sometimes when I go on the platform, sometimes when 1 leave it. I have done it in many places —Paris, London, Berlin, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. Would Not Sing Any More. “Was I eyer told I must not do it r No, no. Only by Alderman Grant, but he did not stop me. I said I would not sing any more. It would not matter to me; I was only expressing loyalty to my country just the same as you would express by some action loyalty to Great- Britain. If somebody had come to me and said: ‘ Tito, please avoid any trouble. Just abstain from salute because there is jealousy and feeling,’ maybe I would have said ‘All right,’ but I was provoked. “The statement was made that I was the agent of a brutal Fascist Government, and I said I will not stop in your country. As a good Italian I will always give the salute.” Suiting the action to the word, Schipa raised his right hand af3ove his head. “It is not something new; it is the old Roman salute, known for thousands of years,” he said. Schipa said he had received congratulations from thousands of people in Australia on the stand he had taken when he replied to a newspaper article stating that Italy was a peaceful country. He said he was considering bringing his own opera company to Australia and New Zealand next year, for which he would have to ask the Government for support.