RIVAL DECREES IN ITALY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 14, 12 October 1943, Page 5

RIVAL DECREES IN ITALY

Conduct Of Populace

And Troops GERMAN EXCESSES

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received October 11, 7.40 p.m.) LONDON, October 10. Tlie Badoglio Government is establishing military tribunals in tlie libertiled areas to deal with civil and military offenders, it is aniiouiice'd. from Bari radio. Tlie crimes over which the tribunals have jurisdiction include communication with the enemy, abandoning his post by a commander during a battle, surrender to the enemy, and 'desertion by Italian soldiers whose

units are disbanded and who fail to report to the Italian or Allied com-

ma nd. Rome radio at tlie same time broadcast German decrees under which the Nazis in tlie north of Italy proscribe tlie death sentence against Italians who- aid the escape of prisoners of war or other prisoners, or who loot, death or 20 years' imprisonment for possessing radio equipment, tor causing damage, for persuading others to hamper the normal course of work, for slacking at authorized tasks, Or for persuading others to slack, 10 years to life imprisonment for contacting

prisoners and internees or imparting news to them, for participating in unauthorized public meetings, for taking photographs, for publishing articles designed to tarnish file prestige of tlie Axis forces, or for teaching radio telegraphy, 10 years or more for disobeying orders or abandoning work, and five years or more for holding street meetings in a blackout. The Swiss radio stated that the Germans in Rome have requisitioned taxis and suspended private motor traffic. Berlin radio announmed that rationing of tobacco has been imposed in Rome. Woman Shot, Child Killed.

The German prisoners taken in Italy are reported to be more or less convinced that the war is going against them. The bombing of Germany has had a great effect on the morale of the soldiers in Italy, and letters from German homes have got through the censors to tell the troops of the civilians’ plight. Of 2000 prisoners taken by the Fifth Army many have used the word “catastrophe” to describe the Allied bombing. As the- British troops advanced toward the Volturno River tragic stories were told by the population of villages beyond Naples, says a war correspondent (quoted by-British Official Wireless). “I spoke today to a doctor who has been treating a young mother who was shot in. the right hand,” he said. She toid him that the Germans took her into their officers’ mess, shot her through the hand .with a revolver, and killed her child. "The ' Italians sent their women-folk away to the hills because of the demands the Germans are making on them. In one village I heard of two. women who were raped by German soldiers who afterward cut the women’s throats. Such stories of German brutality abound. There is one well authenticated case of 20 Italians being buried up to the waists and their hands cut off before they were shot. There is another of a child’s hand being severed, while in one village through which I passed a German soldier, complaining about the food he had been given, burnt down the house of his host.

“It is small wonder that these peasants, who bad little enough sympathy with Fascism, are now helping all they can to rid the country of the enemy.”