BOMBING OF ROME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1943, Page 4

BOMBING OF ROME

APPROVED BY BRITISH SEAMEN WORKERS’ HOMES & HISTORICAL MONUMENTS. MUSSOLINI’S RESPONSIBILITY. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, July 22. In Monday’s raid on Rome, 717 persons were killed and 1,599 injured, says an Italian communique. ‘■Rome is a legitimate military objective,” declares the “Universe,” which is a London Catholic weekly. “Catholics certainly are not going to play the Axis game by echoing the -violent and hypocritical protests of the Italian Fascist radio. A large number of people here and throughout the world feel that the raid, though certainly no crime, may have been a blunder. Nobody who knows Rome can have expected that the marshalling yard would be hit and San Lorenzo escape. We are bound to say we regret that the raid took place. Leaving Catholicism out of account altogether, we believe that a comparison between those in this country who hail the bombing of Rome and those who regret it would not produce a conviction that, taking the long view, it was wise.” ' The National Union of Seamen, at its annual meeting, unanimously passed a resolution - congratulating the Bomber Command on bringing home to the Axis the meaning of total war. The resolution added: “We decry people who are more concerned with the destruction of -historical monuments than with the destruction of workers’ homes and families in Britain, and hope the authorities will continue to press the attack until the Axis is destroyed.” “Are not the little mission churches in our street just as dear to us as any monument in Rome,” said Mr J. H. Tarbitten, of Hull. “If there is any responsibility for the bombing of Rome it is on the head of Mussolini. He had the chance of declaring it an open city, but did not, and instead has used it for years for military purposes.”