Outbreak in the South

What U.S. and British authorities had dreaded ever since Italy's liberation--the organization of a Communist outbreak--was a fact last week.

Through the streets of Andria, in southern Italy, stalked Communist Leader Vincenzo di Gaetano, sporting a brace of pistols and a pair of huge knives. He had been sent to Andria by the Bari branch of the Communist Party. Round his neck on a string was a whistle, with which in recent weeks he has frequently summoned from their labor in the fields the 600 men and 500 women of his rowdy revolutionary "armed escort."

Armed with hand grenades and machine guns, Andria's Communists had disarmed the local carabinieri, looted a train carrying food, confiscated cattle from the farmers, replaced Andria's liberal mayor with a Communist laborer, evicted the Socialist leader of the local labor federation from his office, opened the jail and enrolled the inmates in the Communist ranks, kidnapped persons whose fate is a mystery, liquidated the family of the local forester who opposed them. When carabinieri were rushed in from Bari, two were killed. Comrade di Gaetano telephoned to demand that the others be withdrawn at once, that ten local carabinieri be put at his disposal. Meanwhile the unrest spread to nearby Corato, Trani, Barletta and Canosa di Puglia.

To Rome went appeals for help. Premier Ferruccio Parri, who as Minister of the Interior heads the police, sent down Socialist Minister Gaetano Barbareschi with orders to "appease the Andrian autonomists." While he addressed the Andrian Socialists, the Communists set fire to the local courthouse. Then Communist Minister of Finance Mauro Scoccimarro was sent to Andria. The situation grew calmer, but the Communists refused to surrender their arms. Police knew that the Communists had turned the local caves into arsenals, but the arms were not confiscated and no arrests were made.

The Andria outbreak divided Premier Parri's new coalition Government. Left-wingers insisted that the riots were due entirely to the serf-like conditions of the Bari farm laborers. Liberals and Christian Democrats agreed that conditions were bad, that they must be improved at once. But first, they said, Andria's Communists must obey the law. While they argued, Vincenzo di Gaetano continued to rule Andria.

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