ITALIANS IN U.S.A.

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20914, 14 October 1942, Page 3

ITALIANS IN U.S.A.

FREED FROM BAN ENEMY ALIEN CLASS NAZI extermination aim (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (10.30 a.m.) NEW YORK. Oct. 13, “From October 19 Italian aliens will no longer be classed as enemy aliens. From that time exoneration so well earned, will be granted to them.” This was announced by the Attor-ney-General, Mr. Francis Biddle, who said: “It does not mean that dangerous and disloyal persons will, no longer be subject to apprehension and internment. We still will not take any chances, but Italian aliens will be free to participate in the war effort without the handicaps hitherto hampering them. Of the 600,000 Italians it has been found necessary to intern only 228.” Mr. Biddle said that he would recommend Congress to pass a bill, granting otherwise eligible aliens citizenship without the literacy test, provided the applicants' were more than 50 years of age and had arrived in the United States before 1924 and bad lived there continuously ever since.

“Revolt Cannot be Kept Down” “The people of Italy are sick of Fascism, sick of Mussolini, and particularly sick of Hitler,” he said. “The revolt against Italian Fascism cannot be kept down; it has already started.” “The Nazi plans' contempalte the wholesale deaths of Italians; indeed virtually every Italian soldier," said the assistant Secretary of State, Mr. A. Berle, at a Columbus Day rally. He added that wherever possible, Hitler used Italian troops in sectors where they had been killed. Referring to Reichmarshal Goering’s statement that the Germans will be fed and other Europeans will starve, Mr. Berle said that Italy is included in the starvation programme. Italy’s food and resources were being seized and sent to Germany with little coming back. Mr. Berle expressed the conviction that the Italian people did not support Mussolini’s terrible treason which had enslaved them. , “American citizens of Italian ancestry know how to condemn the Fascists who strut the Quisling part in Rome and the Nazi marionettes whose strings are pulled by Hitler,” he said. “American citizens of Italian descent will know how to greet the Italian people who reconquer its freedom.”