Show rumors 7 cost dime a dozen in secretive dictator lands OME those unconfirmed R ROME reports and rumors I 1 your newspaper brings from rome berlin and other totalitarian cities may prove in the end to be false but dont blame your newspaper in ift both germany and italy where news must filter through a ministry of propaganda before painstaking censors decide whether it should be released the most fantastic rumor may prove to be true on the other hand a very logical report from some distant province may have been entirely false the foreign correspondent has a choice of waiting several days until the story is dead and thus having it denied or confirmed by the propaganda ministry or he can take a chance and release it as a rumor mystery of eye doctor mussolini and hitler are both men of mystery whose comings and goings make big news yet lucky in added 1 is the foreign correspondent 1 0 ho can pierce the veil of secrecy and send his paper an authenticated story recently mussolini made a secret visit into northern italy which produced three rumors tor for correspondents take your pick 1 he was going to switzerland to consult an eye specialist 2 he was meeting hitler in the brenner pass 3 he was meeting a german diplomat and the swiss eye specialist at venice not until almost a week later did the ministry of popular culture known as pop cult to correspondents give reporters the story several of them got severe dressings down for having issued false reports yet no one could have expected them to ignore 11 II duces trip troop train panic similarly the world was startled Ca averal leveral months ago by reports that k perman troops were passing southward through brenner pass for reshipment by boat to italian colonies in italy this was a sensational story substantiated by a respected 3 11 C 3 IL 11 DUCE did he visit an eye doctor herr hitler or just a diplomat private german citizen who said his cousin had seen the troop trains one night at genoa similar rumors came from many villages along the line in the end these troop trains proved to be shipments of german confiscated czech army equipment being sent to libya in trains guarded by german sentries recently italian newspapers made capital out of false rumors printed abroad publishing a list of them under the heading an anthology of false news it included stories growing out of the seemingly fantastic report that foreigners were being evicted from the italian tyrol this story denied by pop cult was true so while germans and italians blame democratic malice or panic tor for the melange of rumors surrounding their comings and goings foreign correspondents put the blame elsewhere on a blanket system of news suppression which has made the task of checking rumors almost impossible |