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Show Second Front in Africa Q Points North to Italy L' ' Underground Anti-Fascists in Italy Want f i f f Strong Brand of Democracy for Aiding J 1 Allies; Seek U. S. Pledge. '.;-' 1 A - i i By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator, WNU Service, 1343 II Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. According to a number of people in Washington, of whom your correspondent cor-respondent is one, the most star-tlingly star-tlingly important event of the war may be taking place and nobody, including the enemy, will admit it. A second front has been opened, the first carefully planned and meticulously timed offensive against the Axis since the war started has begun in Africa. There are diplomatic diplo-matic developments as well as military mili-tary which, some believe, indicate that the path to victory will lead through Rome. Of course, you couldn't get even a whiff of official confirmation for such a presumptuous assumption from anyone higher than a first sergeant. ser-geant. Nevertheless, there seems to be quite a bit of circumstantial evidence evi-dence to support the observation of such a development. At the same time certain happenings in the diplomatic field add their touch of verisimilitude to what the military might say was a bald and unwarranted, unwar-ranted, if not unconvincing statement. state-ment. Such military information as I , might oiTr, which has not been a part of official statements, would not be wise to print. But it is permissible permis-sible to recall that the Germans claim that the British have a million men under General Alexander's command in Africa. The official accounts of the number of American flown planes in almost continuous activity over a huge area Indicate that the American air force in Egypt is not inconsiderable, even in these days of giant armies and armadas. Apprehension in Tunisia There are. diplomatic reports of apprehension on the part of the populace of Tunisia, a vital strip of territory lying along the coast of the narrow waters that separate it from Sicily, the Axis stepping stone from Italy to Africa, which hint that activities may extend even further west than Libya. These are some of the outward signs which are there for all to see. From a military standpoint Italy is the weak sister of the Axis partnership. From the standpoint of anti-Nazi-Fascist internal subversive organization she is perhaps the strongest ally for the United Nations. An African Af-rican offensive might logically end in an invasion of Italy. The recognition of these anti-Fascist anti-Fascist underground organizations as important elements in the general gen-eral Allied offensive against the Axis can be taken as a straw showing show-ing which way the tide of war may be flowing. And they are being recognized. rec-ognized. One very significant development was a recent statement from London, Lon-don, which at first blush simply seemed to dampen any hopes that the king of Italy might be a force in bringing about a separate peace with Italy. But this negative suggestion, sug-gestion, when taken together with certain other indications, has quite another meaning. The London report re-port indicated that the king was no longer the "prisoner of Mussolini" he had been pictured, but really the friend of Fascism. This seemingly gratuitous statement may well have been offered as a piece of firing data for the diplomatic marksmen indicating indi-cating that they must change their sights. And an inkling of just what must be done in order to obtain the support of the elements in Italy which can be of service to the Allied cause comes from an objective report re-port on the underground in Italy. This report, originating with anti-Fascist anti-Fascist sources in the United States, clearly analyzes who these people are, what they have already Accomplished Accom-plished and what must be done to get their co-operation. A realistic program is laid down by inference which will not be at all palatable to the conservative or the conventional conven-tional masters of official intrigue among the United Nations. According to this report from anti-Fascist anti-Fascist sources the underground in Italy is now composed largely of young men, born and educated in Fascism, who are working entirely from within its framework. They are members of the party because they have known no other party and no other government through their mature years. They are members of the armed forces because thqy are loyal to Italy. According to the report which I mention, made by supposedly authentic and authorized representatives repre-sentatives of the anti-Fascists, the underground movement in Italy is powerful and effective; it has accomplished a weakening weaken-ing of civilian and military morale; mo-rale; publishes a large and efficient ef-ficient anti-Fascist press; has organized political meetings and combat groups in nearly every Italian town; has brought about unity for the first time in Italian history between the working class and the intellectuals. intel-lectuals. It has caused general inefficiency in the army, caused sabotage in the campaigns of Greece, Albania and Libya and effectively sabotaged war industries. indus-tries. The members of these groups, the young men who grew up under Fascism, are not revolting to bring about a status quo ante they are revolting against the status quo for definite aims. They want a new democratic order. Italian Anti-Fascist Demands The members of the Italian underground un-derground are thoroughly determined deter-mined to overthrow Fascism wherever wher-ever it exists. But they demand a concrete, complete, sincere statement state-ment of the program of the anti-Fascist anti-Fascist forces before they will join them, since they risk everything in revolt and think they might simply sim-ply gain new chains for old if they faced a typical political peace. They want, specifically, a clear-cut clear-cut statement of the peace aims oi the United Nations. They want these aims stated without equivocation equivoca-tion or couched in the fine generalities generali-ties of the Atlantic Charter. And they want to be sure that they have the guarantee of the United States as the administrator of those terms with freedom to build the kind of an Italy they want. There is something of a parallel between these Italian demands and the revelations, or what the conservative con-servative diplomats would call the indiscretions, of Wendell Willkie when he called for assurances of the non-imperialistic designs of the United Nations. Willkie, as is his wont, used a blunderbus instead of a scalpel to obtain his end, but he did clear up the atmosphere on the subject of what Russia and China thought about the need of extending the scope of the Atlantic Charter. The realistic Jan Smuts, prime minister of South Africa, echoed this sentiment senti-ment a few days after WiUkie's report re-port to the nation. Others are repeating re-peating the demand for a full statement state-ment of peace aims. Strong Brand of Democracy Another point upon which some of our allies, and particularly our potential po-tential allies in Italy, want recognized recog-nized by us and emphasized is the belief, many times stated but very seldom elaborated, namely, that we don't expect to go back to things as they were. They expect democracy, but they make it plain they expect it to be economic as well as political, and they want a brand that may prove stronger medicine medi-cine than everyone might care to take. The groups in Italy, like those in other countries, have forged their political philosophies in the fire of persecution. perse-cution. The revolt against the physical brutalities of totalitprianism is likely to carry them far in the opposite direction. They demand an ideal of democracy hard to attain. It becomes, therefore, a vital task of the American statesman, in assuming as-suming the necessary leadership of the United Nations as their supreme physical effort approaches, to formulate for-mulate a post-war world peace ideal. If, as seems possible, the second front will touch Italy, home of Fascism, before it reaches the Nazi borders, the attitude of Italy's anti-Fascists must be clearly understood under-stood and taken into account. |