The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1942. ABJECT ITALY.

Evening Star, Issue 24329, 19 October 1942, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1942. ABJECT ITALY.

The j-twentieth anniversary of the famous “ march on Rome,” which falls on Thursday next, has been chosen as the occasion for releasing more than 22,000 non-political prisoners in Italy. The march was a fitting beginning of Fascism’s too long record of bluff and bluster. Mussolini’s heroic part in it, it has been said, was performed in the sleeping car of a railway train. As to the prisoners now to be released, it must be supposed that they represent only a very slight proportion of those in detention in Italy. “The Fascist State,” it was written before this war, “ is one in which all liberal-democratic opinion is banned. The Press, broadcasting, and all means of propaganda are censored. Teachers in schools and universities must be orthodox in the Fascist faith in order to retain their positions. The State takes the child into the Fascist camp at an early age and keeps him (and Tier) there during adolescence. There are associations for both boys and .girls.” Hitler may remember those hints for his Nazism when he meets his fellow-dictator at the Brenner Pass withiiL a few, days from, now, but generally it has.-tiu; promise of being a humiliating meeting for his ally. Whoever wins the war Italy has already lost it, and an Axis triumph would be likely to bear even more heavily on her than one for the other side.

It would be impossible for the Germans to be satisfied with the Italians’ military record, either in Africa or in the Balkans or on the Russian front. The Italians are blamed, it is said, for having to Russia insignificant forces of very poor quality, which, instead of being an asset, have been a hindrance and a nuisance. 'What else could the Fuhrer expect? Responsibly it is stated that Italy is included in Germany’s starvation programme for non-Germans. Italy’s food and other resources are being seized and sent to Germany,- with little coming back. Only in America is the Italian having anything like a tolerable existence, and there lie is in no burry to change it. More significant than Victor Emmanuel’s arhnesty is the Washington Government’s announcement that from to-day Italian aliens will no longer be classed as enemy aliens. As the result of good conduct which they have shown, they will be free to , participate in America’s war effort—a great proportion of them will be factory workers—without restrictions.they-have hitherto suffered. By the census of 1930 there were 1.790,000 Italian-born inhabitants and 2,750,000 more of Italian blood in the United States. Except for the population of German descent, they were the largest “ foreign ” element. They have no leanings to Fascism, and their compatriots in Italy will not be much more attracted to it by the small amnesty which is now offered them as a bribe.