SICILIAN AIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1943, Page 4

SICILIAN AIMS

DESIRE FOR SEPARATE INDEPENDENCE DECLARED IN MANIFESTO. DISPLAYED BY ORGANISING COMMITTEE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.45 a.m.) LONDON, July 27. When the Allies marched into Palermo last Friday they found the streets placarded with a manifesto signed by the "Committee for the Independence of Sicily.” The manifesto was printed secretly on the day the Allies disembarked. It said:

“Fascism is finished at last, and the peoples who, in common with us, have ideals of liberty and democracy, have come to give us help in throwing off a tyranny which is the worst in all history. The unity of Italy, through no fault of ours, is shattered. Sicily wants to organise itself, govern itself, and live separately.” A Combined British Press correspondent, cabling from Palermo, comments: “However much the Allies suppress political activity, nothing is going to prevent the Sicilians thinking and talking about the future. They don’t regard themselves as a part of defeated Italy. They honestly regard themselves as a liberated people. This Committee for Independence is an existing and organised thing, which many Sicilians regard as the nucleus of their political future. Its leader is Andrea Aprile, a former Under-Secretary for War. The members of the committee are nearly all former Liberal Deputies. Last January the committee communicated with Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt. Mr Churchill’s recent radio reference to Sicily’s future aroused fervour and excitement. The committee argues that Sicily always has been ruthlessly exploited for the benefit of Lombardy and Piedmont, the most influential provinces of United Italy. Mussolini, they claim, had no real support among Sicilians. Consequently he deliberately held down and exploited Sicily.”