Evening star., 1942-09-20
: Taylor Is Reported
Seeking Pope's Aid
10 Halt Axis Atrocitie!
United Nations Held
Fearing Wave of Revenge
In Postwar Period
BY BLAIR BOLLES.


The reason President Roosevelt
has sent Myron Taylor on an ex-
traordinary mission to the Vatican
is to request Pope Plus XII to use
! the great authority of his Office to
urge the Axis and Axis satellites,
including the government of Vichy
to abandon their policy of atroci-
ties against Jews and other persons
in the occupied lands. it was said
here yesterday by United Nations
diplomatic sources.
The growing toll Of violently tor
tured persons by the Gestapo and its
helpers in the occupied countries
Is alarming the allied governments
that speak for countries under Axis
control. These governments see in
the atrocity campaigns the devasta-
ton of whole populations and they
ask whether their nations can be
rebuilt if the Germans, Italians and
QuiSlings are permitted to murder
and cripple men and women by the
thousands.
Post War Revenge Feared
The United States and Great Bri-
tain for their part are daily growing
more impressed by the prospect of
an irrepreSsible demand after the
wars close for bloody, haphazard
revenge against the Germans and
Italians by the peoples in the now
occupied countries if definite steps
are not taken to curb the atrocities
The opinion is increasing that no
peace will be possible if the seeds of
hate continue to be soWn.
At the same time it was speculated
that Mr.. Taylor might talk to His
Holiness about reports on the pos
sibility of the Italian people turning
on their Fascist regime, headed by
Premier Mussolini and Count Ciano,
and giving organized underground,
or possibly open, assistance to the
cause of the Allies.
The concern of Cardinal Hlond,
Catholic primate of Poland over
the atrocities in his country led to
arrangements earlier in the sum-
mer for hlm to visit the United
States ano tell in detail the story
OF the treatment visited on the
Poles by the Germans. A premature
official shortWave broadcast from
the United States about the pro-
posed visit, however, caused Otto
Abetz, German representative in
Paris, to Put impossible hazards in
the way of his leaving Europe.
Catholic Prelates Resist.
Cardinal Hlond is said now to be
In Lourdes. Whether his anxieties
are shared at the Vatican, there is
no way Of knowing. Catholic pre-
lates throughout Europe, as well as
their Protestant colleagues, have
been at the head of the moral re-
slstance both to the spread of the
antl-Christlan Nazi theology and to
the Axis attempts to crush the ma
tional instincts of the peoples in the
occupied countries.
Mr.. Taylor went to the Vatican in
the wake of high Catholic resistance
to Axis expression of anti-Semitism
In Unoccupied France, where Cardi-
nal Gerlier, Archbishop of Lyon has
refused to instruct Catholics to sur
render to the Vichy authorities
Jewish children in their keeping
Vichy has agreed to cooperate with
Germany by deporting Jews to the
Reich.
Reports reaching here from
Europe indicate now that preSidept
Roosevelt's recent announcement
that those responsible for atrocities
would be tried after the war in the
countries where the cruelties oc-
Cured has had no restraining effect.
A denunciation of atrocities by
the British government is expected
soon.