“ITALY A GAOL”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 10

“ITALY A GAOL”

NO EXIT WITHOUT A STATE PERMIT Italy’s Minister of Justice, Signor Rocco, according to the Rome correspondent of “Le Temps.” is about to submit to Bignor Mussolini a new penal code of 600 articles. It will make Italy a prison for Italians. “The liberty of the individual,” says the correspondent, “is sacrificed to the safety of the Government. “No Italian may cross the frontier without the permission of the Government authorities. “To attempt to gc- abroad is punishable to the same extent as a fair, accompli—by severe terms of imprisonment and heavy fines. ‘A clerical ex-Deputy, Signor Alcide de Gasperi, has just been fined 29,00 ft lire and sent to prison for four years for ‘attempting abusive expatriation.’ i.e., for an attempt to go abroad for political purposes. Armed Guards On Frontiers “The new law empowers frontier guards tc use their firearms to prevent anyone crossing the frontier by indirect ways, and accomplices are liable to the same punishment as those who attempt to leave Italy.” Tourists in Alpine regions on the Italian frontier, the corespondent adds*, will be well advised to avoid roads leading to Italian territory. They may be thought to be Italians escaping abroad: and if they do not halt when called upon to do so fire will be opened upon them. Messages in “Le Temps” regarding the state of affairs in Italy are attracting considerable attention; all the more so because of that paper’s semiofficial positron. Gaol For Political Offence A telegram from Rome slates that the trial of 2 9 workmen by the “Fascist Tribunal for the Defence of the State” concluded yesterday. The men were charged with carrying on “Communist propaganda’’ ana were sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from five to 12 years in all, 156 years. The charge really amounted to one of belonging to the Communist and the remarkable point about tn trial is that the defendants charged under a law —that which dissolves the Communist party—wnic did not come into force until tw months after they had committed tne “crime” and had been arrested. That they subscribed to the bocia - ist paper “Unita” was the chief of the flimsy evidence brought again* them. . A Most of the prisoners that they had never belonged to t Communist party, but that did n help them. __