Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-05-23
Italy Curbs
Communists
New Laws, Revised
Powers for Police
Considered
Bv John P. Leococos

By John P. Leoeocos
ROME.-If there is one sure
thing in Italy, it's the determine
ton of the government of Alcide dc
Casper to draw the irons onto the
Reds as tightly as chance and lib
erty- loving public opinion will per-
NIT.
Security officials already are
drafting a series of laws they want
the government to propose to the
new Parliament as safeguard for
the future.
1t also is considered probable that
the reported revamping of the Red
military apparatus is a deliberate
attempt not only to disclaim re-
sponsibility for subversive acts, but
also to ready going underground
concern if and when the black day
comes that the government does
outlaw the party.
Before the government goes to
repressive extremes-which include
the favorite pipedream of some po-
lice to whisk into prison at once the
republics so leading Communists or,
say, the entire Central Committee
of the party-the following meas
ures are being proposed:
Authority to be given exclusively
to the police to issue Identification
cards. Mayors do so now, and many
are free-dispensing Communists. In
effect this would involve a census
of the entire Italian population Of
48, 0O0,0
Would Register Aliens
Strict registration of aliens. This
is aimed directly at the estimated
100000 displaced persons In Italy,
most of whom do not live in camps
where they can be watched.
Heavy penalties-10 to 20 years;
imprisonment has been suggested
for harboring aliens without noti-
flying the police. This has been the
soft and obvious way for foreign
agents to duck notice.
Enactment of a law permitting
police to give revocable licenses
to those who wish to carry arms,
whether household revolvers or
hunting guns. Despite the haulS
of the last six months, police con-
cede their confiscations are a drop
in the bucket compared with the
number of weapons floating around
Italy the last 10 years.
Withdrawal of all present pass
ports, including diplomatic ones,
and properly controlled granting of
new passports. No one knows the
number of passports handed out to
Communists and fellow travellers
during the regime of Red Socialist
Pietro Nenni as Foreign Minister.
Communist Eugenio Reale, as his
undersecretary, and Nenni Socialist
Giuseppe Romita, as Minister OF
the Interior.
Strike Draft Threat
Power to draft Into immediate
military service any strikers against
q public service or utility, with the
further clear-cut provision that
leaders of such strikes are liable
to arrest and imprisonment. This
threat, mildly expressed, helped
blast recent plans for a gas strike
in Rome, incidentally.
While the national government
politically tries to isolate the Com
munists and similarly to white
down their public partisan veteran
formations by inducing assertions,
as it were, to safer. non-Communist
veteran groups, Army authorities
also hope funds will be provided to
establish a real intelligence service.
Although official American OBJ
servers assert italian intelligence is
good, you won't hear informed Ital-
ians say the same. Disrupted by the
war, the service-Sisi-also has
some OF the faults often formerly
ascribed to the American G-2-too
much personnel with merely good
social or financial connections or
university education, and little
practical experience or effective
to mingle with the work.
ing classes-which the Communist
agents habitually use as protective
coloration.
That there is an enormous amount
to find out, no one doubts. The
general structure of the Communist
military setup, which is derived
from the wartime partisan forma-
tons, is known: 1t is divided into
echelons of combat brigades, supply
personnel, messengers, intelligence,
sabotage and political-action squads.
Jobs often are interchangeable.
Slav Border Watched
But what is not known with any
precision is the extent to which
Italian-speaking Slav hatchetmen
have been infiltrated into active
field work. The Slavs are the Ital-
ian authorities greatest worry
though some Americans think the
concern exaggerated.
Nonetheless, there is no question
and United States Army Intelli-
gence reports from Trieste cor
roborate this-but that steady
stream of Yugoslav or Communist
agents have been flowing across the
Venezia Giulia frontier into Italy
for the last two years. They usu-
ally come from Istria in Zone B,
where almost everybody usually has
both Slav and Italian names and
command of both languages. Friuli
and Veneto, the strategic areas next
to Venezia Giulia, where italian
defense troops would have to deploy
~, depfh orc ror,orfed hoy1evcorohod