The King Speaks

All day long and into the night, envoys shuttled between the King's villa in picturesque Ravello and the nearby villa where U.S. and British diplomats were lodged. In Naples next day Vittorio Emanuele III broke a long silence:

"I have decided to withdraw from public affairs by appointing my son, the Prince of Piedmont, Lieutenant General of the Realm [TIME, April 17]. This appointment will become effective by a formal transfer of power on the day on which the Allied troops enter Rome. This decision ... is final and irrevocable.

The little King who had welcomed Fascism, called Benito Mussolini cousin and condoned the stab in France's back had held firm against all pressure. He had shrewdly echoed Winston Churchill's pledge of last February: When "we enter Rome ... we shall . . . review the whole Italian political position." No man could say when Rome would fall. Even then Vittorio Emanuele would keep his title, would not abdicate.

The little King's political opponents had not held firm. First to break the united front of the six anti-Fascist parties, which at Bari last January called for the King's abdication, were the Communists. Pronounced their little, bespectacled leader, Palmiro Togliatti, recently returned from a long exile in Moscow: The "monarchical question" must be "shelved in the interests of national unity" and the war against Germany. Philosopher Benedetto Croce then expressed willingness to serve in a coalition government. Count Carlo Sforza, most bitter critic of the tarnished House of Savoy, also appeared ready to go along. At week's end the six-party junta, without enthusiasm, accepted the King's decision. This week Vittorio Emanuele accepted the resignation of Pietro Badoglio's Royalist Cabinet, ordered the Premier to form a new one with Communist, Socialist, Liberal, Actionist, Christian Democrat and Labor Democrat representatives.

At the monthly meeting of the Allied Control Commission in Naples, regional officers painted an ugly picture of Fascists creeping back to power.

Said U.S. Lieut. Colonel G. H. McCaffrey: "The people in southern Italy . . . are definitely opposed to the Badoglio Government. . . . There is a continual slowdown in all work. . . . Officials appointed by us have been replaced with Fascists, and some removed by us for Fascist views have been reinstated. There is still graft, resulting in looting of food." Fascist youth organizations have reappeared under new names. Italians have come to distrust their liberators. The Allies seem to be losing both prestige and popularity.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.