28 JANUARY 1928, Page 3

The Milan correspondent of the Times has given an interesting

account of the trial, and we learn that the prisoners ranged from well-to-do educated persons down to ragged paupers. Long established brigandage always has some code of chivalry, or what passes for such, and the Mafia has always been able to rely upon a good deal of public sympathy in Sicily. Of course, the brigands knew how to be courteous and affable to those who yielded, but they stopped short of no crime against the rich who would not support the society. The levying of blackmail on landowners and farmers was persistent, and there is no stronger proof of the power of the conspiracy than that the Mafia could intervene in elections and even apply systems of local taxation.

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