“TIME HAS COME”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 July 1943, Page 3

“TIME HAS COME”

FACTS SET BEFORE PEOPLE OF ITALY CHOICE INVITED BETWEEN SLAVERY TO DICTATORS. OR BOLD BID FOR PEACE & FREEDOM. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, July 16. In a message broadcast from Algiers, President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill warned the Italian people that the time had come for them to decide whether to die for Mussolini and Hitler or to live for Italy and civilisation. . ‘.‘This is a message to the Italian people from the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain,” said the broadcast. “At this moment the combined armed forces of the United States. Great Britain and Canada under the command of General Eisenhower and his deputy, General Alexander, arc carrying the war deep into the territory of your country. This is a direct consequence of the shameful leadership to which you have been subjected by Mussolini and his Fascist regime. Mussolini carried you into the war as the satellite of a brutal destroyer of peoples and liberties. Mussolini plunged you into a war which he thought Hitler had already won. In spite of Italy’s great vulnerability to attack by air and sea, your Fascist leaders sent your sons, your ships and your air forces to distant battlefields, to aid Germany in her attempt to conquer ( England, Russia and the world. This association with the design of Nazicontrolled Germany was unworthy of Italy’s ancient traditions, freedom, culture and traditions to which the peoples of America and Great Britain owe so much. Your soldiers fought, not in the interests of Italy, but for Nazi Germany. They fought courageously, but they have been betrayed and abandoned by the Germans, on the Russian front and on every battlefield in Africa, from El Alamein to Cape Bon.

NAZI HOPES BLASTED. “Today Germany’s hopes of world conquest have been blasted on all fronts. The skies of Italy are dominated by the vast air armadas of the United States and Great Britain. Italy’s sea coasts are threatened by the greatest accumulation of British and Allied sea power ever concentrated in the Mediterranean. The forces now opposed to you are pledged to destroy the power of Nazi Germany—a power which relentlessly has been used to inflict slavery, destruction and death on all those who refuse to recognise the Germans as a master race. The sole hope of Italy’s survival lies in an honourable capitulation' to the overwhelming power of the military forces of the United Nations .If you continue to tolerate the Fascist regime which serves the evil powers of the Nazis you must suffer the consequences of your own choice. We take no satisfaction in invading Italian soil and bringing the tragic devastation of war home to the Italian people, but we are determined to destroy the false leaders and their doctrines which have | brought Italy to her present position. “Every moment that you resist the combined forces of the United Nations, every drop of blood you sacrifice, can serve only one purpose—to give the Fascist leaders a little more time to escape from the inevitable consequences of their own crimes. Your own interests have been betrayed by Nazi Germany and by your own corrupt leaders It is only by disavowing both that a reconstructed Italy can hope to occupy a respected place in the family of European nations.” The message went on to stress that the time had come for the Italian people to consider their own self-re-

spect, their own interests and their own duties for the reconstruction of theii’ national dignity, security and peace. It continued: “The time has come for you to decide whether Italians will die for Mussolini and Hitler or live for Italy and civilisation.” The message is being broadcast to Italy every few hours. Thirteen news bulletins were broadcast to Italy during the day. Many copies of the message are also being dropped in Italy by Allied bombers.