Free Sicily

Marcus Porcius Cato never wore a derby hat. He never chain-smoked cigars or drank a highball. But Cato and Winston Churchill would have understood each other perfectly on one subject: Mediterranean policy. Like the Briton, the Roman understood that the key to the middle of the Middle Sea is the island of Sicily.

Last week the most curious sidelight on Winston Churchill's recent trip to Italy was the revelation that Sicily was once again becoming a political football at the toe of the Italian boot. Britain was reported to be toying with Sicilian separatism, and with the idea of restoring the long-defunct kingdom of Sicily. To Sicilians, uncomfortably conscious of the rising tide of leftist political turmoil on the mainland, the idea was attractive.

No Sicilian needed to be told that his three-cornered Trinacria, 75 miles from Africa across the shallow Straits of Pantelleria, and two miles from Europe across the deep Straits of Messina, possessed strategic significance.* He remembered too well the prewar days when the French in Tunis, the British in nearby Malta and the Italians in Sicily had eyed each other warily while feverishly building forts and airfields. Too recently had he watched Sicily-based Stukas cut at will the lifeline of the British Empire as it curved past Sicily on its way to Suez. Control of Sicily, for a nation which already has Gibraltar and Suez, Sicilians knew, would mean control of the eastern and western basins of the Mediterranean.

When the Allies landed last year, they found Sicilian separatism ready to blossom.

Semifeudal Latifondisti, powerful landowners long protected by Fascism, saw in independence a chance to prolong their rule. Sicilians in general saw in Italy the source of all their recent grief. They flocked around Andrea Finocchiaro-Aprile, energetic mouthpiece for Sicilian separatism, and nominal head of the maffia.

Discreetly, the British permitted meetings. Promptly, King Vittorio Emanuele and Marshal Badoglio and even Sicilian-born World War I Premier Vittorio Orlando jumped to their microphones to plead with Sicilians to remember their political ties. In April Badoglio thought it wise to appear in person, but the agitation continued. To many Sicilians, a snug little island kingdom nestled against the protecting ribs of the British lion looked good.

* Said Germany's geopolitical General Karl Haushofer: "Sicily is the center of gravity of the Mediterranean Empire."

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