Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-07-14

iandlady at his roon1ins house said
he appeared to be Tranquil
youth" whom she saw only at night.
Sharp Reaction From Left.
The shooting brought immediate
signs of sharp reaction from the
Left. On the heels of furious dem
onstrations at the Chamber Of Dep
uties and Senate Building. the labor
confederation sent kilograms sum-
noning its Executive Committee to
secret session.
A nation wide general strike-ru-
mored for days as an outgrowth of
current labor agitation-Was report
ed in the cards.
Togliatti was a signer of the
recent complaint of the Communist
/ Information Bureau against Premier
Marshal Tito and Yugoslav Com
munist leaders.
The attack came as Italy's
Socialist and Communist parties
agreed to continue their unity
of action pact against Premier De
Gasperi's government.
Alliance Is Continued.
Leaders of the two parties called
for consolidation of democratic
forces to fight against what they
called Mr.. de Gasperi's clerical and
police regime"
A joint meeting Of the party lead
ers had been expected to announce
the dissolution of the Popular
Front which met defeat at the
hands of Mr.. de Gasperi's Christian
Democrats in last April's general
election. Instead, it announced a
continuation of the Communist-So-
cialist alliance.
Moscow trained Togliatti has been
a bitter assailant of Italian partici-
patton in the European Recovery
Program, contending the ERP would
! "enslave" Italians to the American
! economy.
| He also has sharply attacked the
Vatican and its support of the
Christian Democrats in the election.
/ Todays Communist newspaper
L'Unita reprinted one of Togliatti's
attacks against the temporal power
of the church.
| Small, Affable Man.
Togliatti is a small, affable and
witty man. He has puckish face
and his head is large for his UNDER
sized body.
AS head of the Italian Reds. he is
| leader of the largest Communist
Party in Europe outside Russia. He
is rated as Moscows ablest tactician
abroad.
During Benito Mussollnis long
Fascist rule in Italy Togliatti took
refuge in Russia, where the Com
munist5 schooled him well. He
learned to speak Russian fluently
as we'll as French and Spanish.
| During the early days after the
war when coalition cabinets were in
vogue in Italy. Togliatti was a vice
premier and later Minister of JUS
/ tlce.
! He is we'll educated. He is as
much at home in historical, philo-
sophical ard theological debate as
in MARKHAM dialectics. His oratory
in the Italian National Assembly
invariably delights gallery sitters.
While no rabble rouser, he usually
draws huge throngs, not all of them
Communists He speaks quietly,
bolstering Communist points with
quotations plucked from an appar-
emily indelible memory of everything
~, n
pinnochio.
Lives Modestly.
/ He is neat dresser usually wear
ing double breasted dark suits.
1 Togliatti lives modestly with his
wife, Rita Montagnana, another old
line Communist organizer. He is
S. and was born in Genoa.
All his life Togliatti has been an
Intellectual and a Communist
agitator.
His father was a state employe.
! Togliatti went to school in Sardinia
and made perfect grades. At uni
versity. where he studied law. his
marks likewise were uneXcelled.
| He was a leading Communist in
North Italy when FaScism drove
him underground and later into
Russian exile. He was member of
the Third Internationale presidlum
during his stay in Russia. He
fought later in the Spanish Civil
War and was returned to Italy from
Russia through the Allied beach
mead at Salerno, won largely by
American blood.
He looks more like professor
than a revolutionary.