LOOTING ROME

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 11, 8 October 1943, Page 5

LOOTING ROME

Nazi Crimes Foreshadow Evacuation FATE OF THE CULTURAL TREASURES Growing Anxiety For Vatican ■ (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received October 7, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 7. A critical situation has developed in Rome where, according to news reaching London from many sources, the Germans are acting as they did before the fall of Naples. The reports mention sackings, killings, the removal of Ministries and, in fact, all the preliminaries to an eventual evacuation. The Germans are looting Rome. They are stated to be removing paintings, old manuscripts, art treasures and anything else that is valuable. It is stated that no gangster methods have ever equalled what is occurring in Rome. The Madrid correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says that the Vatican authorities are preparing for the worst, even for the possible carrying off of the Pope as a hostage. The Pope has sent to representatives abroad a document which is to be published only if he is imprisoned or removed from Rome.

In this document the Pope is understood to have’ declared that he would never leave Home voluntarily but only as a prisoner. The Papal Nuncios throughout the world will present the documents to the Governments to which they are accredited if the Germans announce that the Pope has taken up residence elsewhere “to ensure his personal safety.” All the Vatican buildings which enjoy rights of extraterritoriality are being clearly designated in case fighting occurs round the city. ' "As Rome has been a war zone for 4 s hours and the Italian Army has not taken adequate measures to protect the Vatican, German paratroops have taken over this task, and we are sure of ' the Holy Father’s full understanding in this,” said the German overseas radio. “The Vatican authorities have ordered the construction of a modern barracks for our troops so that they need no longer pass the night in open cars. A hospital for our sick and wounded has been established in the Vatican. “Home is not an occupied but a friendly city. The German forces are relatively small in order to give Rome the character of an open city, but the German

lauding in Salerno bay. On the night that the Fifth Army landed Naples was actually wide open. From the time the Germans returned till the Fifth Army relieved the city three weeks later, the Neapolitans lived under a reign of terror. At least 70,000 young Italians were forbidden to doff their uniforms, under paiu of death, and within a week all were taken away under guard. They have not been heard of since. It is believed that they have been taken north to build defences.

commander naturally exercises control and makes himself responsible for the security of the inhabitants. The Italian police have been armed and given equipment necessary to deal with the Communist elements. There are at pre-, sent food supplies in Rome for 10 or 16 days.” “Plot to Kidnap Pope.” A plot to kidnap the Pope and remove him “to a place of security outside the reach of the British and Americans” is reported from the Italian frontier, says the “New York Times” Berne correspondent. The plot failed and the ring-leaders, some discredited Black Shirts, were arrested. The truth of the story, which has caused- great apprehension in Catholic quarters, can not be ascertained, but it is considered significant that the Nazi-sponsired Italian radio warned its listeners that the Allies were planning to kidnap the Pope in order to use bis name as a propaganda weapon against the Axis. Meanwhile, says the correspondent, the anti-Axis partisans’ operations in northern Italy have attained the pitch of outright warfare. For example, in the Cqmo region 4000 Alpini have cleared more than 100 square miles of territory, and on other sectors, including Milan, the Germans have given up further attempts to maintain their railway communications in face of the partisan sabotage. Transfer of Government. According to Rome radio, the Fascist Republican Government has moved from Rome to an industrial city in northern Italy. Rome’s newspapers and the official news service ’ will follow to the same city, and the Ministers are also being moved. The radio added: "The Foreign Ministry is always where Signor Mussolini is, and therefore it has. no fixed headquarters.” The “Daily Express” says the Germans are talking openly of the Allied threat to Rome. The “Borsen Zeitung” states that Mussolini’s Government has been transferred north from Rome be-' cause the war can no longer be directed from the capital, which is endangered from the sea, while its communication lines may be cut off because of the nearness of enemy airfields. Other sources refer to a. state of siege in Rome, with the people bordering on starvation. The “Daily Express” correspondent on the Eighth Army front says: ’■•The Germans are now fighting with a kind of desperate energy which they have not shown before, and are laying waste to everything possible between here and Rome. It seems dear that Kesselring aims somehow at holding the Allies in the south, hoping they will be caught by the winter. It has been raining lightly every day for the past week, and the early mornings in the mountains are bitterly cold. Streams which recently were dry are now filling up. Prisoners’ Complaint.

‘•Prisoners report that there is much complaint in the German" lines of tiredness and lack of reinforcements. They say that Rommel is sending nothing from the north.” Among documents captured when the German Major Rau was captured at Termoli was an order to engineer battalions of the Hermann Goering Division to de- > stroy everything of the slightest value to tiie Allies, particularly railway lines and other means of transport, and also buildings of military value, even including flourmills. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters says that the Germans interpreted the order so literally that they took even bicycles and carried off loot in perambulators. The Germans in one village burnt 30 tons of grain before the eyes of hungry men, women and children. Italian peasants, when thfy get the opportunity, avenge themselves. In one village they attacked four German stragglers who had been looting, and killed one and left the others for dead. Our troops found these seriously wounded. Food for Neapolitans.

Several hundred thousand loaves baked from flour brought in by the Allies provided the inhabitants of Naples yesterday with the first bread they had eaten for over two months. Food had arrived by ship and road convoy, says a correspondent, and is being distributed through the civil rationing channels. The correspondent reveals that fwo days before the announcement of Italy’s surrender and the Allied invasion, the Germans stationed in Naples left in a violent hurry. Italian naval officers told him that the Germans did not return till September 11. the day after the Allied