Message for the King

To the U.S. and Britain last week came news of the first democratic congress held in liberated Europe.

In the ancient port of Bari, shattered by German bombs, 120 Italian delegates met after two decades of silence, privation and exile. The majority came from the liberated south, but many had made their way from the Nazi-occupied regions. They represented six Italian parties: the Party of Action, headed by grey-haired Count Carlo Sforza; the Christian Democrats (mainly peasants); the Socialists; the Liberals, headed by Philosopher-Senator Benedetto Croce; the Communists; the little-known Democratic Labor Party.

Resolve and Dilemma. A message smuggled from Rome to Bari, and signed by representatives of the six parties, gave an account of guerrilla activities, of sabotage and strikes organized by the underground Italian Committee of Liberation in Nazi-occupied territory, complained bitterly that "in this fight, the Government [of Marshal Badoglio] is not participating." Count Sforza accused the Marshal of removing secondary figures but protecting those principally responsible for Fascism's misdeeds. He concluded: "To save Italy, the King and his most important accomplices must be eliminated."

Upon that familiar premise, the delegates were united. Not until Vittorio Emanuele III abdicates can Italy get even a provisional democratic government representing the parties at the Bari Congress. If the Bari resolutions are to be more than words, two things must happen: 1) the U.S. and Britain must turn away from the King and Marshal Badoglio; 2) the apathetic Italian masses, not all of whom love the Allies, must be roused to an interest in democracy as intense as that of the men at Bari.

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