GO-SLOW WAITERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 31, 7 December 1943, Page 6

GO-SLOW WAITERS

ITALIAN MILITARY GUARDS

LITTLE DKSIIRE TO FIGHT

"E don'l know ii' it's the experi-. ence oi" nil prisoners—but Ii think it's very likely—it's this: One. does not for a moment cease to hate those lyrannous forces that we are lighting against. We have seen Fascism in power, and its. a damnable thing. But when one is in personal contact with the individual it is difficult to feel personal hostility. With the lftaliuns, perhaps, that is not . surprising. Ilow can you feci hostile to a group of guards who ask you to hold their lisli (and their rilles) Avhile they gel oil' the train to get a cup of tea—and who then miss the train,, leaving you to cat their fish and nurse, their rilles? And you can't feel altogether hostile towards a pol'iceman who undresses in his olfice to show you his pretty uniform. Sometimes, its true, the real Blackshirls come along. and then the atmosphere, becomes severely impersonal. But that's rare. More often, .1 think, we have come to think of gaolers as a group of individuals —Toni. Marco; Mario,, Guiscppc— tile simple-minded victims of a brutal system they've alloAved to come to power."—An Australian padre giving "Impressions of Prison Life in Italv."