KING UMBERTO LEAVES ITALY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 7

KING UMBERTO LEAVES ITALY

Jovernment Charged With Illegal Act

POWERS GIVEN TO PRIME MINISTER

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p m.) • ROME, June 14. The Italian Government has been charged by King Umberto rith an illegal act in naming the Prime Minister (Signor de Gasperi) as the provisional Chief of State while he was still iteupying the throne King Umberto made the charge in a proclamation published five hours after his departure by air for Lisbon. King Umberto described the Cabinet’s action as revolutionary, and accused the Government of assuming by a unilateral act powers not belonging to it. He added that the Cabinet’s decision had confronted him with the alternative of provoking bloodshed or yielding to violence. In a statement issued in reply to King Umberto, the Government denied that its announcement authorising Signor de Gisperi to assume the powers of the provisional Chief of State was a revolutionary action because the announcement in no way indicated an actual assumption of powers. The statement described King Umberto’s proclamation as a “painful” document based on falsehoods, and asserted that the King’s sudden departure had been kept carefully concealed from the mentThe statement also reaffirmed the Cabinet’s contention that the Republic came into being automatically with the Supreme Court’s announcement on June 10 showing a majority of 2,900,000 for a republic. Nevertheless, the Government had continued to negotiate with King Umberto in the hope of finding an amicable solution of his objections.