11 Since then not forty but 840 ily’s Career in the war has been © of suffering and disappoint- ent. Her losses in these two years or amount to about 800,000 men Yled and wounded and taken isoner. Her naval losses consist one or two battieships, nine gHisers, 50 destroyers and many Dmarines. Her aircraft losses up February, 1942, amounted to 00 planes in the war with Bri- in alone, and today they total 100 or 3,500 planes. Her loss of erchant shipping amounts to 2,- 0,000 tons, of which 1,500,000 ns or haif of fitalys pre-war erchant tonnage, has been sunk ‘Italy's war doctrine was always née of “Swift decisions.” A pro acted war is beyond her pow- _ Italy’s population is condemned ' a state of semi-starvation— e bread ration in Italy is the west in Hurope. Her industries ‘ experiencing an acute short- re of raw materials. @ ¢ = JEQUISITIONING of all inter- % nal resources down to and in- uding metal railings and uten- is and woolen blankets and mat- esses cannot save the situation. aly is Goliged to contract her dustry, to “concentrate” it, hich means closing down the ants. The transport situation is criti- u. Italy is perhaps the only suntry in the world where even ys and more have elapsed and By M. OSIPOV JREMIER SARACOGLU of Turkey recently told news- Paper correspondents this story. On the eve of Italy’s itty inte the war the Turkish ambassador in Rome went to e Ciano and apparently advised him not to allow Italy to t embroiled in the conflict. The Italian minister of foreign fairs rejected this counsel of wisdom and declared that uch a favorable opportunity for Italy may occur only once 9,000 years. Italy will not let it slip. The war will end ithin 40 days with complete victory for the Axis powers.” travelling on the suburban street cars and buses is rationed. The blockade is stifling Italy economically. Before the war 60 percent of Italy’s imports passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and the Dardanelles. Today Italy is entirely dependent on Germany. The suspension of German coal deliveries means the suspension >f industry. Germany has never recognized any other alliance but that of rider and horse—and Italy is get- ting weary of her brutal German rider. Her grain and wine, fruit and vegetables, mercury and sul- phur, silk and bauxite and lastly her manpower are ruthlessly com- mandeered for German use. In the list of countries which supply Germany with labor power Italy is second only to occupied Po- land. With their usual brazen inso- lence the Germans inundate the country with countless military, political, economic, technical and cultural missions and agencies, mow the real masters in Italy. The allfanee with Germany is highly unpopular in the country. Even the Nazi press is obliged to ad- mit this. The Italians, and not without justification, regard the Germans as their age-old enemy. SReeke is a popular saying: “If we lose the war it won’t be so terrible, but if we win it we shall lose everything.” This dis— Satisfaction with the war finds ex- pression in open protests and Turin, one of Ttaly’s largest industrial centers, which, with Naples, has received terrific pounding from : cently. Probably the only country in the world where even suburban streetcar travel is rationed, Italy is being stifled eco- mically by Allied blockade, while her German “allies” commandeer her resources and manpower. Discontent With War Causes Italian Unrest RAF bombers ment shot five of them. cations in the south. MOSCOW. — Italian workers in a war plant at Dresden downed tools when their demands to be sent home were refused. SS guards called by the manage- GENEVA.—In the last two months there have been more than 40 acts of sabotage on railways in southern Italy. Train movements were disrupted for a week whe na bridge near Brancaleon was blown up. Six- teen German and Italian officers were killed when a passenger train collided with a freight. from Rome State that the Fascist officials are seri- ously concerned at the disruption of rail communi- Reports demonstrations. The opposition to the present policy and a demand for a separate peace and Italy’s withdrawal from the war is grow- ing not only among the masses, but also among the intellectuals, army officers, moderate industrial circles and the Catholic and court circles. The purge of the Fascist Party last spring was also directly due to the growth of the opposition towards the war and the policy of alliance with Germany. “Why have our sons been sent to die amid the snows of Russia?” This is the question to which the Italians are demanding a plain answer. Italy’s participation in the War against the Soviet Union per- haps shows more clearly than any- thing else to what an extent Italy has become a vassal state. On the contrary, the weakening of Germany as a result of her im- mense losses on the eastern front and the growing pressure brought to bear by the Germans on Italy to make her activities share more fully in the war on Russia have served to render the Italo-German antagonism more acute and to un- dermine the Italo-German coali- tion. @ IG fissures have developed in the Axis. All the German forces are hopelessly involved on the eastern front, Germany’s stra- tegical plans have suffered bank- ruptey, Hitler's military prestige has been sapped and Germany’s opportunities of bringing military pressure to bear on Italy have been~ restricted. ; Italy is trying to take advantage of the new military and political situation ané the blow to Ger- Many’s prestige as the leading power in the Axis system by striving to win back her lost posi- tions in the Balkans and the Dan- ube and to slacken the deadening tutelage of her Berlin ally and master. In the summer of this year she occupied southern Dalmatia and strengthened her position in Croa- tia economically and politically. The recent resignation of Quater- nik, who was regarded as the Ger- man commissar attached to Mus- solini’s puppet Pavelic, also testi- fied to the strengthening of Italy’s position in Croatia. Occupied Greece and Serbia likewise con- stitute an area for the Italo-Ger- man struggle. In Hungary too Italy is playing an anti-German game. The resig- nation of Bardoshi at the begin- ning of this year was a blow to Germany. Recently Italy has engaged in a vigorous flirtation with Bulgaria. This is the outline of Italian diplomatic machinations to create a “shadow block’ con- sisting of Italy, Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria directed against Ger- many and her more loyal vassals. The Italo-German antagonisms have above all been focussed around the question of the “dis- tribution of the burdens of the war,” that is, the number of Itak- an troops to be sent to the Soviet- German and other fronts. Notb- withstanding gross German pres- Sure, Italy has pursued a policy of “economising on her forces” and did not put all her troops into the field. Hor instance she sent 10 divi- Sions to Russia, whereas Rumania, a country with only one third of Italy’s population, sent 22. Even in Libya there were only eight to eleven Italian divisions. This policy of economising her forces was the real military guarantee of a certain freedom in foreign policy which Italy strove to se- cure. i) NS this policy will-have to be abandoned. The defeat -of Rommel’s army, the Anglo-Ameri- can offensive in North Africa and the consolidation of the Allies’ positions in Algeria. Tunis and Tripolitania will mean that Italy is caught in an iron vise and will be subjected to continua] blows from the sea and air. On the issue of the fight for Tripoli and Tunis and of the strug- gle for the rectangle of Sardinia— Sicily-Tunis-Tripoli will depend the whole strategical position of Italy. Two paths confront Italy. One is a resolute fight for Tunis and Tripoli, for mastery in this stra- tegical rectangle. The resolute struggle means that Italy must throw all her forces into the field, which in turn means the wealken- ing of her position in the Bal- Kans, relinquishing her strategical reserves and completely submit-— ting to German Nazism. In that case Italy will be con- verted into an absolute vassal of Germany, like Rumania, and no noise about the “annexation’’ of Nice and Savoy will be able to camouflage - it.. : But a resolute fight will at the Same time mean that Italy will bleed profusely, that she will be subjected to terrible blows and that untold burdens will fall upon the Italian people. There can be no doubt that Italy will be unable to wage such a fight for long under the extremely unfavorable circumstances and against a su- Perior adversary. She will soon be put out of action. ope other path confronting the Italians is to break the shame-— ful alliance with Germany and to withdraw from the war. It is a path which the Italian people would adopt with enthusiasm, for they know that in the event of an Axis victory, the alliance with Germany would mean the end of Italy as an independent power. But the prospects of victory have vanished. The only prospect is one of inevitable defeat. There is no reason why the Italians should share with Hitler the price he will pay for his mad adyven- tures. They are seeking for a way out of the war, a way to peace. They are being intimidateu by the threat of-a German invasion. But Italy is in a position to defend herself. The overwhelming mass of the Italian army—35 or 50 divisions out of 65 or 70—are stationed within the country (with 10 in the USSR, 11 in Libya, and 12 to 14 in the Balkans). The Italians will be able to defend themselves against the age-old threat from the north, and what is more they will not be alone. Thus the Italians are at the crossroads. One road leads to un- told suffering, to complete en- Slavement to the Germans and to drastic defeat. The other road is one of resolute struggle for emancipation from dependence on Germany and for peace and lib- erty, Tertium non datur.