ITALY MENACING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 141, 15 May 1940, Page 8

ITALY MENACING

ABUSE OF THE ALLIES. WIDESPREAD CAMPAIGN. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) ROME', May 13. Signor Mussolini has mobilised the Fascist Party for an intensive drive for the purpose of bolstering up loyalty to himself and whipping up enthusiasm ‘or the war and hatred for the Allies. Violent demonstrations to-day broke out at Bologna, Forli, Bari, Florence, Naples, Salerno, Aquila, Palermo and. other cities.

Hundreds of Bolognese students paiaded the streets, waving flags and shouting “Down with England!” Ah® local Fascist leader addressed a wcilorga.nised demonstration of schoolboys and. Fascist cadets at Forli. Florentine youths surrounded the British and French Consulates, shouting imprecations, and students at Ban assembled at the German Consulate shouting “Viva for the Axis!” Bus conductors in Rome handed out anti-Allied pamphlets with tickets. A British woman tourist who protested and tore up the leaiiets was severely manhandled. The police and troops guarding the British and l'rench Embassies have been increased to 500. The Fascists have increased the terrorism against the Vatican paper Osscivatore Roma.no and the breach with the Vatican has widened with &ignor Mussolini’s endorsement of a book which the Vatican has just placed on the Index Expurgatorius (banned list for Catholics). _ . . The British Consulate is advising tourists to leave. Medical students demonstrated against England and France, and marched to the British Embassy, where the police intervened. Students at the English, Scottish and Belgian theological colleges in Rome are going home as soon as possible. YUGOSLAVIAN ANXIETY. The Belgrade correspondent of the Associated Press quotes a reliable source as stating that Yugoslavia had taken all security measures to guard against Italy’s entry into the war. It was added that in the event of Italy s entry, both Greece and Yugoslavia were in danger of an Italian invasion. Yugoslavia had brought up her forces on a war footing to 700,000. HOSTILITY TO BRITAIN. ' POSTER CAMPAIGN. LONDON, May 13. A new outburst by the Press against tho Allied contraband control has followed the publication of a report by tho Bureau of Economic Warfare, which bitterly complains of the allegedly disastrous effect of it on Italian commerce, states a message iiom Rome. , . , . The Press is also making frenzied efforts to support the German allegations that the Allies were on the point of invading Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg when Germany intervened. The Press does not allude to the Pope’s messages to the iuvaded counFascists obstructed the sale of the Vatican organ, Osservatore Romano (whose circulation since the war began was recently reported to have increased enormously through Italy). They burnt copies on a railway station and threw readers into a city fountain. Squads of young Fascists continue to plaster the streets of Italian cities with anti-British posters. It is estimated that 100.000 are posted in Rome alone, and 20,000 were dropped from a private aeroplane. Militant Fascists patrolled the streets to prevent the removal of the posters. A message from Cairo says that the Italian Minister (Count Mazzolini) has been summoned to Rome.