"No Truck with Fascism"

In statements from Frankin Roosevelt, U.S. policy toward tottering Italy began to emerge.

Evidence of the delicacy of the situation came in the President's prompt public repudiation of an OWI overseas broadcast which had categorized King Vittorio Emanuele and Premier Pietro Badoglio as Fascists . The general tone the U.S. Government will maintain was rung in the Fireside Chat: "Our terms to Italy are still the same as our terms to Germany and Japan--'unconditional surrender.' We will have no truck with Fascism in any way, in any shape or manner.. We will permit no vestige of Fascism to remain."*

Two days later, at his press conference, the President brought the generalizations down to the give-&-take of diplomacy. When a victorious army invades a country, he explained, two essentials come first: ending all armed opposition and avoiding anarchy. To gain these essentials in Italy, he was ready to talk peace with the King, Badoglio, the mayor of a town --with anyone who was not a definite member of the Fascist Party. Self-determination of government by the Italian people would come later. To show the Italians what kind of occupiers we are, to prevent Sicily from slipping into hunger and disease, Mr. Roosevelt added, food, medical supplies and diesel oil for milling wheat are already being shipped from North Africa. Selected war prisoners will be freed to help in the harvest, which begins in a few weeks.

At the same press conference the President served notice that all the machinery to punish Axis leaders was not simply machinery. He handed reporters a statement: "There are now rumors that Mussolini and members of his Fascist gang may attempt to take refuge in neutral territory. One day Hitler and his gang and Tojo and his gang will be trying to escape from their countries. I find it difficult to believe that any neutral country would give asylum to or extend protection to any of them. I can only say that the Government of the United States would regard the action.... as inconsistent with the principles for which the United Nations are fighting and that the United States Government hopes that no neutral government will permit its territory to be used as a place of refuge or otherwise assist such persons."

This thinly veiled warning was unique in diplomatic history. In dealing with the whole Italian problem, Diplomat Roosevelt was speaking softly and carrying a big stick.

* * Four weeks ago, the President had given a shot in the arm to the United Nations Commission for the Investigations of War Crimes by appointing as American Commissioner, former U.S. Minister to Portugal Herbert Pell (TIME, July 12).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.