Free Speech in Naples

Expediency celebrates an anniversary this week. In Algiers a year ago, Admiral Jean null Darlan's assassination precipitated the first great crisis in Allied rule of conquered territories. In Italy last week expediency was still in trouble.

The Italian Committee of Liberation, representing the six major non-Fascist political parties, insisted on the right to denounce the King and the Badoglio government. For expediency's sake, Badoglio was needed to keep order until the Allies captured Rome. In the name of expediency, and on orders from above, AMG had banned political assemblies in Naples; a students' anti-Fascist rally was broken up by the police. The Liberation Committee stormed AMG with protests, charged "neo-Fascism" and violation of the Moscow Conference guarantees of free speech and assembly. To Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, the Committee sent a message outlining their grievances.

Ultimately both sides yielded ground: the Committee apologized for the neo-Fascist charge; AMG permitted a mass meeting in Naples. There was no trouble at the meeting. No one protested the mass conclusion that "the King must go."

Meanwhile Monarchist Badoglio's authority was spreading. The Allied Advisory Council for Italy decided to put all southern Italy under his control.

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