When Rome Falls
The fighting on the left-wing of the Fifth Army in Italy has been rather loosely described as the " battle for Rome." It is evident that Allied strategy has been aiming at the destruction of the German forces situated between Rome and the Cassino area, and that the capture of the city is not its objective ; it is certain, more- over, that every effort will be made by the Allies to avoid an assault on the city which would turn it into a battlefield. Every Allied citizen desires intensely that that horror may be avoided. None the less, it will be a very important result of victory that it will bring Rome under Allied control. General Mark Clark ventured the prophecy on Tuesday that its liberation would take place before many days had passed. It will at once impose a tremendous task on Allied organisation, even if it should be the case that no military damage has been done in the German retreat. The normal peace-time population has been greatly swollen by the influx of scores of thousands of refugees, and there is already hunger among the people owing to the difficulty of getting in supplies over roads which have been cluttered with German trans- port. A first task of the Allies will be to provide food, and next to enable Italian administrators to keep order. When the fighting zone is sufficiently far forward the Badoglio Government will pre- sumably move to Rome, and when that occurs there must be the promised reorganisation of the Ministry, Nor is it likely to be forgotten that the Vatican is in Rome. Though it has never under Fascist or Nazi rule surrendered its independence, it would be idle to claim that it has been able to exercise the whole weight of its authority when cut off from the free world. One strange result of the fall of Rome may be conversations between the Papacy and the Government of Stalin.
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