BADOGLIO’S ACCOUNT OF EVENTS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 10, 7 October 1943, Page 5

BADOGLIO’S ACCOUNT OF EVENTS

Collapse Of Fascism (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 5. Marshal Badoglio revealed many new facts about the fall of Mussolini in his first interview with Press correspondents. One was that not one of the Fascist Party’s 7,000,000 members put up the slightest resistance when the Governmentfell, and within a day not a single person was to be seen wearing the Fascist emblem. . Mussolini, Badoglio said, was m Germany and was suffering from an ulcer. On the question of the future of the Government of Italy, he said: “As soon as we get back to Rome, which is the head and heart of Italy, I intend to set about completing a coalition Government of the most intelligent anti-Fascists, including four service Ministers, and definitely excluding all Fascists.” Marshal Badoglio declared that Fascism did not collapse as a result of attack from outside; it disintegrated from within, following the dramatic meeting of the Fascist Grand Council in Rome on July 24. The meeting, which was stormy, lasted for 30 hours. Signor Bottai led the opposition, and the voting was 19 to 5 against the Uuce, which meant that he must resign. When the news of his resignation became known there was great happiness in Rome and all other cities and towns throughout the country. After the Duce handed his resignation to the King he was taken into protective custody to barracks in Rome, from where be wrote thanking Marshal Badoglio for protecting him from the fury of the people that might have fallen upon him.. Mussolini was then taken to the island of Ponza, and thence to Maddalena, in Sardinia, where he remained for a short time before being finally removed to the locality from which he was rescued by German parachutists. Fascist Officials’ Attitude.

Asked if the members of the Fascist Grand Council realized that by voting against Mussolini they would bring about the collapse of Fascism, Marshal Badoglio said some realized that the whole system would crack but they hoped they might get into top seats in the new administration. The others realized that there was general feeling against Fascism and that it only needed the fall of Mussolini for the whole party to collapse. Germany took the sacking of Mussolini, as a personal affront, and German divisions at once began to pass through the Brenner Pass into Italy. There had been differences of opinion between the German and Italian High Commands before the armistice said Marshal Badoglio. when the Italians refused to accept Field-Marshal Rommel as com-mander-in-chief of both forces. The gap between Italy and Germany was then becoming apparent throughout Italy, and by September S German and Italian soldiers were fighting each other on the outskirts of Rome. .Marshal Badoglio added that he and the King decided to leave Rome to set up a Government elsewhere. They left early on September 9 by car, driving along a road past German troops and tanks on the outskirts of the city. They were not disguised. They then embarked on an Italian .warship and subsequently set up a Government “somewhere in Italy.” The Marshal’s only angry reply during the interview was when he was asked what Mussolini said to him after the collapse, and he replied that he had not spoken to Mussolini since November, 1940. He smiled, however, when he added that Mussolini had written to his stair saying that he was going to dedicate himself to the church.