AT ALLIED DISPOSAL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 17, 15 October 1943, Page 5

AT ALLIED DISPOSAL

Available Italian Forces (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 13. The Italian declaration of war will, it is hoped, clarify the situation in the minds of Italians, whose duty will be more than ever clear. A co-belligerent is not an ally. Cobelligerency, not being a legal status, is conceived as a state of affairs deriving validity from the fact of active co-oper-ation in war. To the extent that her cooperation is forthcoming, Italy will benefit from the new situation recognized by Britain, the United States, and Russia. Messages from Algiers indicate that at the Allied headquarters it is expected that the German violence and savagery will provoke the Italians to fight: back. At all events, the manner in which the Italian troops and civilians have been and are being treated by the Germans cannot fail to be contrasted with the relations now existing between the Italians' and their new co-belligerents.

This consideration has special relevance in those areas where the Italians have not been overpowered by the German forces, particularly in Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece, in many parts, of which countries Italians are working with the local patriots against the German garrisons.

Italian troops remaining armed in territory occupied by the Allies —for instance, in Sardinia, where, they helped to take over the island —will now have . a more definite status. The same applies to the Italian Fleet, which retains all its armaments and crews, and to the Italian airmen who obeyed the instructions to fly to Allied bases. All these units are now armed forces of a nation which is fighting Germany at the side of the United 'Nations. They can therefore be allotted, as necessary, to such duties as the Allied High Command thinks fit. The question of Italian prisoners of war held by the Allies is under consideration. At present the event is expressly stated to be without prejudice to the terms of the armistice.