MARTIAL LAW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1941, Page 5

MARTIAL LAW

THROUGHOUT ITALY DEMANDED BY NAZIS FEARS OF SEPARATE PEACE. MUSSOLINI SUMMONS PARTY LEADERS. ißv Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 29. A “Daily Express'’ corrospondeii.t on the Italian I'lmntier says Signor Alussolini has summoned an immediate conference of I lie Fascist Party leaders in Koine. He is faced wil li a German demand to extend martial law throughout ‘ltaly and to allow German military advisers Io sit on all conrts-mart ial.. Already there have been mass arrests in Milan and Trieste whore martial law has boon introduced, the correspondent says. The Germans fear that the Italian people want to make a separate peace. The Nazis threaten to occupy Italy completely if the Gestapo and S.S. are not enabled to carry out control duty. ITALY’S WORRIES SAID TO BE UNDERSTOOD IN GERMANY. ZURICH. September 28. The Gorman newspaper '’Frankfurter Zeitung," discussing Italy's difficulties, stalos: “Most. Germans do not understand Italy's way of fighting, due to lack of knowledge of the real strategic positions in the Mediterranean. The Luftwaffe, after much hard fighting knows why Malta is still in English hands. Our pilots know that only by constant attack- can Malta’s Strategic value bo reduced and the same applies to the Mediterranean bases from which the British Fleet is constantly menacing the Italian merchant fleet.

"Our advantage in the Middle East lies in the fact that a great part of the British forces are tied up there. Germany wants to keep Italy as a war partner, and we assure Italy that the fighting in Russia is not making us forget Italy’s worries in Africa.”