BATTLE FOR NAPLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1943, Page 3

BATTLE FOR NAPLES

MAY START AT ANY MOMENT LATEST GERMAN TALE. * SARDINIA “EVACUATED ACCORDING TO PLAN.” (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, September 20. The Fifth and Eighth armies have taken up positions in front of Naples and the battle for the city is expected to start at any moment, says the Cairo radio. , Reuter’s Algiers correspondent says complete control of the sky in Southern Italy and air supremacy over the Rome region have left the Allies unchallenged during the last 36 hours, save for a few lone fighters in the daytime and fewer still at night. The sky over Salerno has now been swept, at least temporarily, as clean as was the Sicilian sky after 48 hours of combat. The German news agency says the German troops evacuated Sardinia according to plan, “the evacuation being a complete success, despite adverse circumstances. Naval units took off all the troops and all equipment, despite the scarcity of shipping and rough seas.” CONCERN FOR POPE EXPRESSED BY ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT. POSSIBLE INDICATION OF CHANGE IN POLICY. NEW YORK, September 19. An Argentine Foreign Ministry statement says the Government is deeply concerned over the fate of the Pope in the Vatican City now that Rome is' occupied by German troops. The “New York Times” Buenos Aires correspondent says that many people interpret this as the first indication that a change in Argentine foreign policy is perhaps contemplated. For the second time the Pope has refused to see Field-Marshal Keeselring says Algiers radio. The Pope let the German commander know that the German troops must be withdrawn from Rome before an interview would be granted. The radio also reported that German troops have been ordered to protect the German Embassy at Rome following an outbreak of riots and demonstrations. The German occupation of Rome has not appreciably affected communications between the Vatican and the United States, says the “New York Times.” Vatican messages to its United States representative, the Most Reverend Amleto Cigognani, are apparently unrestricted and virtually normal, but messages to some other Catholic groups are veiled and lack their usual spontaneity.