Friendly Isle

A U.S. mechanic stepped from a transport plane at a captured Sicilian airdrome, shouted to the others in his unit: "If you see any natives, just say 'Come state?' and they'll say 'Bene, Bene.' " His name was Italian, his parents, in America, were Italian, and he added: "I've got a grandmother somewhere around here."

An Italian soldier led three others into a U.S. army camp. In the exchange of names, the leader of the Italians recognized the Italian name of one of the American unit--until he was yanked from his new friends and imprisoned.

Correspondents found many stories of this sort. Whether by design or by the normal composition of many U.S. divisions, especially the ist, there were enough Italian-Americans in the U.S. units to speed the rapprochement of invaders and invaded.

No Conquerors. Beside a captured airfield were two patches of tomatoes; the Italian owner proffered a bushel to the sweating engineers and airmen. Almost all the Italians encountered near this field waved to the British and Americans, called "Good morning" in English. Some of the men saluted--not the Fascist salute, palm out, but the old-style salute, edge of hand against the forehead. But in some towns the old, wrinkled women in the doorways and the men and the young girls were sullen. Their towns had been bombed before the ground forces arrived.

To a British correspondent with the U.S. forces it seemed that "these people do not regard the Americans as conquerors at all. They regard them as authorities who have simply taken over from the Italians. They are at least not afraid."

AMGOT. Amid this human scene, in the fraction of Sicily first conquered, the British and U.S. Armies last week set up AMGOT--"The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory." Here, presumably, was the pattern of military government to be applied elsewhere as Axis territory is taken. From the U.S. Army's School of Military Government at Charlottesville, Va., and from the older civil affairs service of the British Army, scores of officers had come to rule as long as Sicily was a military theater.

Titular head of AMGOT, more for prestige than for actual administration, was the Commander of the invading Fifteenth Army Group, British General Sir Harold R.L.G. Alexander. Functioning chief was an experienced British military administrator, Major General Lord Rennell of Rodd, who established the military government of Madagascar last year. His chief deputy was U.S. Brigadier General Frank J. McSherry, an engineer who has been in the Army since 1917 and has been an executive in various war agencies since 1938. Also in Sicily was New York's ex-Governor, Lieut. Colonel Charles Poletti. A notable absentee: Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

Some of the first rules, as promulgated to the Sicilians:

>When found necessary, medical supplies and food for the destitute will be provided.

> Freedom of religious worship will be upheld and the position of the Catholic Church and all religious institutions will be respected.

> All laws which discriminate on the basis of race, color or creed will be annulled.

> Physical symbols of the culture of true Italy, buildings, libraries, monuments, archives and works of art will be protected from damage.

> Within military necessity, free press and free speech will be promulgated.

> Those accused of crimes against the Allies will be tried by Allied military courts under AMGOT.

>Exercise of the power of the crown of Italy shall be suspended during the period of military occupation.

> The Fascist Party will be dissolved. No negotiations will be carried on with "active" Fascists.

As it was first put into practice, the. prohibitions against Fascist Party members had certain qualifications. Many municipal authorities, all of whom had to be at least nominal members of the Fascist Party, had promptly resigned from the Party when the invasion began. An AMGOT officer privately explained that many of these officials would keep their jobs. AMGOT had to have stable contacts with the local populations, he explained. In many towns Catholic priests dealt with AMGOT, in effect served as local officials. The treatment and recognition, if any, accorded to known antiFascists was not reported in last week's dispatches. In general, it was already clear that minor Fascists in Italy could take heart, that they would not necessarily be dispossessed or punished when the mainland is invaded.

The Time Has Come. Some Sicilians warned their visitors that Fascismo on the mainland was in much tighter control than it was on the island. If so, Fascismo in Italy was certainly worried. Fascist Editor Roberto Farinacci cried out against nincompoop generals and flabby dignitaries in the Mussolini hierarchy. The people were told that Germany could not spare planes or men for Italy from the Russian front. Mussolini extended the zone of military rule to the two southern provinces opposite Sicily.

At this mainland scene, shaken by bombings from the south and from Britain, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill aimed a message:

"At this moment the combined armed forces . . . are carrying the war deep into the territory of your country. This is the direct consequence of the shameful leadership to which you have been subjected by Mussolini and his Fascist regime. . . . Mussolini plunged you into this war, which he thought Hitler had already won. The forces now opposed to you are pledged to destroy the power of Nazi Germany. . . . The sole hope for Italy's survival lies in honorable 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 power of the Nazis, you must suffer the consequences of your own choice.

"We take no satisfaction in invading Italian soil. . . . But we are determined to destroy the false leaders and their doctrines, which have brought Italy to her present position. . . . The time has now come for you, the Italian people, to consult your own self-respect and your own interest and your own desire for a restoration of national dignity, security and peace. The time has come for you to decide whether Italians shall die for Mussolini and Hitler--or live for Italy and for civilization."

Or Never More. The Fascist Party's Secretary General Carlo Scorza promptly rejected this message. But he could not count on its rejection by the Italian people, he had to exhort them to spurn it. He tried to rally them, not to the bound sticks of Fascist heraldry, but to "the symbols of their millenary and everlasting glory ... the Catholic faith and the monarchy of Savoy." He tried to rouse them with a prediction--which was an admission of impending defeat in Sicily: "On the sacred soil of our adored fatherland," cried he, "we shall find more favorable conditions to gain victory. . . . Italians! It is today or never more."

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