TABLEAU OF SORROW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1943, Page 4

TABLEAU OF SORROW

ITALIAN PEOPLE & FASCISM. BROADCAST BY MAYOR OF NEW YORK. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, February 22. The Mayor of New York, Mr Fiorello La Guardia, in a broadcast to Italy, disclosed that he had talked with General Annibale Bergonzoli who was captured by the British in the Western Desert, and eight other high-ranking Italian military officers. The Associated Press recalls that the “Popolo d'ltalia” recently reported that Bergonzoli had been taken to Washington as a prisoner of war. Mr La Guardia said: “We recalled old friends of the World War days, and the generals indicated that those were happier days. When I told them that Mussolini had dismissed General Scuero, the Under-Secretary of War, they expressed unanimous displeasure and disappointment, and they were also united in scorn of his successor, General Sorice. ... I saw in this tableau of sorrow, hopelessness and disappointment a way for the Italian people beyond the dead end of Fascism. When that barrier is removed the United States will be ready to bring immediate help and support for the regeneration of the people of Italy.” The group included a former Italian War Minister, an ex-Governor of Abyssinia, a former vice-Governor of East Africa, and a former Governor of Somaliland.