Evening star., 1943-12-13

NllO lllClSly lCi-
dered lip service to Mussolini in
order to live at peace, sincere mem
bers of the party who may still be
honest men, and the underground
army of crooks, thugs and Snitchers
who were the backbone of Europe's
least efficient totalitarianism.
A part of the job OF AMG Is to
uproot Fascism. Yet it has been
accused in some of the towns and
cities it has taken over of continuing
party members in public Office. This
is partly true and, AMG officers say,
unavoidable
Practically everybody in Italy was
ostensibly Fascist. If all the party
members were to be thrown in jail,
1t would be necessary to build jails
big enough to hold 100000 to 20
100000 Certainly anybody who held
a public office of any kind was a
dues-paying member of the organi-
zation, although he may have hated
every principle for which 1t stood.
Among mankind at large anywhere
one doesn't expect to find many
martyrs.
Existing Resources Used.
The job of AMG is to get normal
civilian life running smoothly in
the wake OF advancing armies as
rapidly as possible and to use for
this purpose existing resources and
organizations. A city must have a
police force, a fire department, a
health service, street service. One
way would be to supply the entire
personnel from the American and
British Armies. This would require
an enormous number of men taken
from the fighting ranks, including
all the specialists who could be
found.
These men would be ill-adapted
to their jobs. A good deal of a local
policeman's value, for example,
comes from knowing his neighbor-
hood. He knows the local crooks,
the local drunks. To put an entirely
new man on the Job, especially one
who did not know the language,
would mean chaos. Besides, abso-
lutte military government would be
only a temporary eXpedient and
things would be as bad as ever, as
soon as it was Withdrawn.
Yet it is certain that the chief OF
police. all his officers and all his
men everywhere are Fascists-that
Is, entered on the party books and
contributing regularly to party sup
port. It is certain that it would be
impossible to find enough men who
were not Fascists anywhere to con-
stitute a competent police force.
The chief of the fire department
and every fireman in any Sicilian
town are Fascists. So IS every doc
tor and every nurse in the NUM-
cipal hospitals. Use must be made
of them despite their Affiliations. -
Fascists in Name Only.
But, Mai. Raffa's investigation
has shown to date, relatively few of
the professional, technical and labor
personnel were Fascists other than
In name only Many of them had
no interest in politics at all. They
were willing to join anything which
guaranteed that they would be left
in peace. A hospital superintendent,
for example, might be a very effici-
ent man at his job, but enrolled on
the party lists. To replace him 1t
would be necessary to find an eqaully
efficient man who had been willing
to suffer martyrdom for political
cause. Such a man would be hard
to find So the superintendent is
kept on his job, but with the clear
understanding that he is there on
trial. To throw him on the streets
would be clear injustice, so long as
he behaves and co-operates.
Maj. Raffas investigations have
shown that very few adults in Sicily