Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-07-13
American Sicilians
Seen as Playing Big
Fifth Column Role
BY JAY G. HAYDEN,
forth American Newspaper Alliance

| North American Newspaper Alliance.
When the history of the present
invasion of Sicily is all told, it is
likely to disclose an Allied NTH
column accomplishment more i'm
portant in its effects than anything
the Germans produced in this line
preceding their Western European
blitzkrieg.
To begin with, the Sicilians are
the most Americanized people in
the Axis countries. OF the millions
of Italian immigrants to the United
States in the first 20 years of this
century. the Sicilian Island supplied
more than the whole Italian main
land.
The Sicilian immigrants were
peculiar in that they came with a
fixed intention of returning to their
homeland AS soon as they had made
;heir stake. They did return in
great numbers, and this movement
was particularly pronounced our
ing the 1930s, due to a vigorous
Fascist campaign to induce Italians
to come home. coincident with
American business depression and
unemployment.
Many Have Relatives Here.
Thus there is hardly family in
Sicily which does not include one
or more of these returned immi-
grants. Many Of them still have
relatives in the United States, as
indicated by the fact that cash
remittances from this country con-
stituted one of the main elements
of Sicilian livelihood right up to
Italian entrance to the war, which
stopped their flow.
The Sicilians have been con-
tinual source of worry to Premier
Mussolini. They were the last to
succumb to the Fascist movement,
and they were the first to rise openly
against it. Sicily's tradition Of
democratic freedom is deep-seated.
After being passed from hand to
hand among foreign conquerors
through many centuries, it began
in 1860 the revolt, under leadership
of Garibaldi which ultimately
liberated all of italy.
Even under Italian rule tfe
Sicilians continued to be tough Gus
toners. They were given to brigan-
dage and terrorist societies, such as
the Black Hand and the Malta,
which, brought with them to the
United States, made the beginning
of the gang warfare in American
cities that reached it's zenith during
our period of national prohibition.
War Drew in Germans.
All the conditions that have
tended to make the Italians war
weary are multiplied in Sicily. Be-
cause it is the nearest Italian base
for operations against Africa, it has
been heavily occupied by the Ger
mans
Last year, when the attempt to
knock out Malta was under way. 800
German airplanes were reported as
concentrated on Sicilian airf1elds.
The Sicilian people witnessed the
signal failure of this venture and
also they watched and suffered in
a front-row seat throughout the long
North African campaign which
terminated in the surrender of Tu-
nisia and subsequently of the neigh
boring islands Of Pantelleria and
Lampedusa.
Throughout the war the Sicilians
have suffered the maximum of ply
steal and economic discomfort. Their
young men have been drafted for
the Italian army and navy and the
products OF their fertile and once
placid fields, vineyards and olive
groves have gone to feed Germans.
1t is no wonder that Americans re-
turning from Italy, after Pearl
Harbor, reported many instances OF
Germans in Sicily being stabbed at
night, of sabotage and even rioting
in that island.
Pressure frightened.
Since then MuSsolini has been
steadily tightening the screws on the
Sicilian people, and economic dis
tress and hatred of the Germans
must have been increasing apace,
not to mention the adverse effect
on Sicilian morale of Axis defeats in
Africa and the terrific air bombing
Of the last few weeks.
Early in the war the British began
working on the Sicilian civilian pop
ulation. That island probably has
been the target of more commando
incursions than any other Axis ter
ritory. Also it has been bombarded
with leaflets, as well AS bombs. 1t