CAPITULATION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 5, 10 September 1943, Page 4

CAPITULATION

YESTERDAY'S resounding news sent the flags up to topmast in and about the Borough of Whakatane. Italy s final capitulation brings the nation still closer to the final vic-> tory over aggression for which the tortured world is yearning. Not only from the peoples of the Allied countries will arise the profound prayer of thankfulness, not only from the countries still enduring the Nazi yoke of serfdom, nor yet again will it be limited to the few fearful neutrals who have watched with increasing anxiety the rise of the dictatorship powers—but the greatest feeling of genuine relief will be experienced by the Italian people themselves. They will read into the new peace which the Badoglio Government has agreed to accept, the complete alleviation from their sufferings, the full restoration of their ancient rights and the lifting of the oppressive yoke of Fascism which for years they have endured uncomplainingly and under which they were led blindly into a major war which has ended so disastrously. The. Italian people have had the dismal spectre, after three years of war, of their manpower wasted almost beyond credulance. Their youth has been sacrificed relentlessly and on a scale undreampt of,, whilst their whole country has been plundered from end to end by pitiless hordes of German occupation troops. Denuded of all things of value, of most of their vital food-< stuffs and tortured daily by the spying network of the Gestapo, to prevent any underground organisation which was likely to endanger the war effort, it is hardly any wonder that the greatest sigh of relief will arise from the people of vanquished Italy herself. From a strategic point of view the capitulation will be greeted with the greatest enthusiasm by the Allied war cabinets. The new front for ihe( exertion of greater and still greater pressure upon Nazi Germany and all that it stands for becomes dazzling in its possibilities. The howl of rage that arises from the German radio can be well understood for Hitler realises only too well that the Balkans are: now laid bare to Allied attack; that the road to Russia through Yugoslavia and Rumania now lies through a population seething with anti-German hatred and ready to welcome an Allied army as deliverers. From the northern Italian air fields new and ever-increasing opportunities will be opened for our heavy bombers against more and more distant strategical targets, whilst the Italian fleet, surrendered and delivered into Allied hands makes the Mediterranean a free sea for all our shipping to traverse unopposed. Italy since the resignation of Mussolini has never been considered an enemy in the same sense as Nazi Germany and her fall deals the first shattering blow to the arrogant soullessness of the once formidable Axis powers.