ITALY'S WAR RECORD SIR, —Permit me to say something about Mr.
Stuart de la Mahotiere's articles on Italy. They show an unfriendly attitude towards the Italians which is comprehensible, but at the same time their writer seems to consider himself as one who knows the Italian character " intus et in cute." All foreign correspondents usually live in Rome and, with or without nobility prefixes, frequent some fashionable circles which are the only sources for their knowledge of Italian affairs. Had Mr. Stuart de la Mahotiere visited the places where the guerrilla warfare was carried out during two years (not one winter), most probably he would have thought differently about the Italian underground movement. The many villages burnt, the number of partisans and civilians killed (many of them hanged with butchers' crooks) would have taught him that it would have been less dangerous to go and work with the Germans. I can assure Mr. Stuart de la Mahotiere that most of the B.L.Os who lived for many months in Northern Italy with the partisans do not share his opinion. And certainly they are entitled to judge more soundly than those who are the -"mouthpieces " of " decadent " circles in Rome or Milan.
The Italian patriots may understand why all their achievements are not sufficient to exempt Italy from " taking the rap for the international crimes, &c.," but is it too much to ask the so-called " Italian affairs expert newspaper-men " to abstain from minimising and splashing with muddy criticism what Italy has done during the last two years of the war? May we suggest Mr. Stuart de la Mahotiere should do something about the dramatic possibilities offered by the last interview of Mussolini with King Victor Emmanuel or by the last meeting of Gran Consiglio? He seems to find those subjects so fascinating, whilst for the greatest part of the Italians they mean but gloomy shadows of their worst past.—I am, Trento, Via Milano.
Previous page
