ITALIANS IN FRANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1943, Page 4

ITALIANS IN FRANCE

REJOICED OVER DOWNFALL OF MUSSOLINI. : When the news of the fall of Mussolini was received in France no one rejoiced more noisily than the Italian troops of occupation, according to a Correspondent of the “Journal de Geneve.” The officers and Soldiers, with the exception of those belonging to the [Fascist party, who kept prudent silence, gave unashamed vent to their Satisfaction, without paying the slightest attention to their situation in foreign territory. The commander of one unit destroyed a portrait of the Duce in front of all his men. At one barracks the French flag was hoisted beside the Italian flag. It was as though the Italian army were celebrating a victory. The reaction of the army, the correspondent points out, is due to various reasons, the prncipal being that the regular officers never liked the Fascists.

Italian occupation has never anywhere been of the harsh Nazi type, and for the Italian soldiers ..the south of France can never feel entirely like a foreign land. The reason is that so •many Frenchmen along the Mediterranean coast speak Italian as well as French. In days before the last war, French and Italian money were used indifferently, even to copper coinage. Also, a great part of the agricultural labourers were Italians, and when Mussolini seized power, large numbers of Italian refugees settled in the south of France.