Strike in North Italy Blow to Nazi Strategy

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 54, 7 March 1944, Page 5

Strike in North Italy Blow to Nazi Strategy

LONDON, March 5. The general strike in Northern Italy is now paralysing all the Italian territory held by the Germans, says the London Observer’s correspondent in Italy. He adds that the strike is a major blow to Hitler’s strategy on the southern Italian front, and the Allied military authorities should take advantage of it at once. The Italian National Front of Liberation and the factory committees have long been rehearsing for the strike. They have prepared a sound strategy for weaponless warfare against the powerfully-armed enemy. The Lold-up of Italy’s power plants gives hundreds of thousands of industrial workers the opportunity to cease work. An admission of the gravity of the strike is contained in Berlin and Rome radio reports. The Berlin radio said: * ‘ Transport operations were resumed in Milan with the help of members of the Republican National Guard, troops, men of the German air force, and Fascist Party chiefs. It is a common sight to see an officer with high decorations driving a tram.” Bloody street fighting is reported to have broken out in Milan. The Swiss radio says that a Fascist prefect was killed during a street battle. The German commander in Milan had ordered the confiscation of all radio sets and the seizure of all sporting weapons. A Swiss report states that the tension is growing and that partisans, benefiting from the situation, have gained control over whole districts, especially in piedmont. The Berlin radio said that the strike was engineered by the Communists and directed from abroad.

Infant Drowned in Water Hole. A child was found drowned in a water hole in New Lynn yesterday afternoon. He was Bryan Valentine Bourke, aged 2, son of Mr. V. Bourke, of New Lynn. The boy, who had been playing in a paddock, was missed by his mother at about 1.20 p.m. Neighbours helped her in the search and he was found lying in three feet of water in a hole which was only 100 yards from his homo. Artificial respiration was tried for about threequarters of an hour without success.