Duce Exiles Foes to Dreaded Lipari Islands
MANKIN, WILLIAM J.
Duce Exiles Foes to Dreaded Lipari Islands Few Escape From Italian Torture Isle Nitti, Rosselli, Lussu Amongst Few to Flee By WILLIAM J. MANKIN BENEATH m scowling portrait of Mussolini, a...
...So the majority of the exiles have perforce to accept the situation...
...THE most remarkable aad successful escape of all was that of the younger Nitti and his two comrades, Emiho Lussu and Carol Rosselli...
...AN almost complete and elaborate system of •** defense against escapers exists at Lipari and neighboring islands...
...It would mean to them the final liquidation of the cruel Spanish conquest of four centuries ago...
...It was not while Mr...
...Their escape had been discovered...
...Aguirre, a cautious liberal, millionaire landowner, and publisher of the daily, La Horn, owes his office to the united electoral support of his own Radical party (read, liberal), Radical Socialists, Socialists, Communists and—catch your breath—Nazis...
...A volcanic rock, Lipari is very like the other islands of this scattered group...
...In July, 1929, in the inevitable disguise of fishermen, Nitti, Rosselli, and Lussu reached a headland, plunged into the sea and swam toward a certain shoal where they could stand almost up to their necks in water and wait for a powerful motorboat that was cruising somewhere in the darkness...
...Four young men, temporarily lodged in the ancient fortress prison of the town, broke from their cells at night, scaled the massive walls of the courtyard, and let themselves down on the outside with twisted ropes of bedding...
...Lloyd )L&&Km George and I (Ec^SHBI are alike con- X^Ef^^ vinced that our f ^ 1 \^^H countries wish KnB^Ai to expel...
...Aguirre Cerda was also backed by the Socialist* and Communists...
...Chile's serious troubles really began during the world war when Germany, hemmed in by the Allied blockade, learned to make nitrates artificially...
...England, he said, had the money and would strain every nerve to retain supremacy at sea...
...For some years after the fascist coup d'etat, Giolitti and his seamen in Genoa successfully defied Mussolini...
...Searchlights were already flooding the strip of shingle and the chugchug of motorboats told of the guards who were already preparing the cordon at sea...
...A certain amount of liberty is granted them...
...After Giolitti's arrest and deportation the Genoese seamen msde no further protest against the fascist regime...
...CINCE then Chile in a succession of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary governments has groped toward a greater degree of self-sufficiency as a basis for economic stability...
...A few act as teachers to the little colony of children, some 150 having been born among the prisoners...
...As for the suggestion that Russian building—German official quarters declare that the Soviets have 160 submarines — necessitates reciprocal action by Germany, naval experts point out that the small boy who has mode ships his, hobby knows that although dog may eat dog, submarine does not fight submarine...
...Medical attendance is sparse...
...Neville Chamberlain...
...The Minister (Mr...
...There for five days they lay in hiding...
...Terrified at the possible consequences of her husband's act, she went to Lipari and eonfesssd to the authorities Promptly a patrol was sent out and the four young men surprised aad captured...
...Like the overseas imperialist* whom they serve (at a nice price) they'd be put out of business The strong Socialist movement of Chile and the powerful underground Apr* movement of Peru know that freedom for the uasnai can be won only by breaking the power of the imperialist* sad their own semi-feudal ruling class*s, and by organising she great resources of the continent under the people's ownership...
...Escape attempts bring hours on a twentieth century rack...
...Nor is it wanted by the military-landlord ruling class.at home...
...Chile's Ex-Nazis Repudiate Hitlerism, Adopt New Salute, Plan Co-Operation With Socialists DUDGY Herman Goering, leader of the German world Nsai drive, * must be sweating profusely today as the new* get* around among high Berlin chiefs that Chile's Nazi* are no more...
...He possessed all the bravura of that sailor immortalized by Blasco Ibanez in Afore Nostrum...
...During the night the vigilance is doubled...
...A program advanced by the party calls for the nationalization and expropriation of tha copper, nitrate, and iron industries and later electric corporations and railroads, low-cost homes for the workers, setting up of s State Bank, and state control of railroads and other public utilities...
...Only three have escaped...
...There are biting blast* combined with heavy rains that have canned consumption to be rife among the prisoners...
...Nazis of any land do favors only at a price, and already they are exacting a heavy price from Chile's Aguirre...
...Lloyd George, then Chancellor of *the Exchequer...
...A few of the prisoners have proved themselves renegades...
...A -few of these intellectual intransigeants may actually be seen serving in the cafes, mopping tables and washing plates with- that sad resigned air of men who have come to an end of all things...
...The motorboat with friends aboard arrived...
...Last September they attempted a putsch...
...TpHIS is what Count Metternich * reported in his dispatch to the Wilhelmstrasse: "Through the unchecked poisoning of public opinion...
...Then in a drunken hilarious spirit the guards will insist upon the exiles singing the fascist hymn Giovthezza, or giving the fascist salute to a portrait of Mussolini that is set before them...
...The exiles welcome the new arrivals and see that they do not starve...
...And periodically the guards raid the huts of the exiles, seeking details of some plot that is said to be hatching, brutally belaboring and lashing- the men who refuse to tell...
...Buon giorne, signor...
...As a tactic...
...But the peasant's wife learned the secret hiding-place...
...The three escaped prisoners were tried in their absence by the Messina court and each was sentenced to five years' solitary confinement and a fine of 25,000 lirss...
...The broad change in plans was made at the national congress of the Chilean ex-Nazis who now call themselves the "Popular Socialist Vanguard...
...No doubt they recalled the experience of their brother Integralistas in Brazil last year, who were rewarded for helping put President Vargas into office by being smashed when they asked too much for their favors...
...An allowance of five liras a day, approximately Is, 6d...
...The news has come as a bitter disappointment to Mr...
...Indeed, tumbling prices in the copper market (Chile is next to the U. S. in copper productoin) during the summer of Tt 'might have warned the gamblers of reasons for leaping from skyscraper...
...For those who are caught in any plot the fascist guards have a form of punishment, refined in its cruelty, which is called "The Cross of St...
...The Franco-German declaration, signed in Paris a few weeks ago, becomes less significant than had at first been thought for it merely declares mutual respect for the present frontiers separating the two countries: in other words France's Mediterranean frontier is not covered by it...
...That's not my idea at all...
...is permitted each prisoner...
...not even Brasil, can solve their economic problems within their own boundaries...
...Lloyd George) showed an understanding of all this, but, like every one of hi* countrymen, he sees in the naval question the central point of German-English relations, around which everything turns and which of all other happenings are a result," wrote the Ambassador...
...Mussolini's portrait frowns down upon them from every corner...
...Lloyd George in the talk with the Ger-^ man Ambassador referred to at the beginning of this article...
...A man who shows too much zest for swimming can be curbed in several ways...
...Too accompany/so...
...You have the familiar German protest against the poisoning of public opinion, the beginning of the race in naval armaments, the serious discussion of the possibility of the introduction of conscription in England...
...Desperate Men T\OWN in the lazy Mediterranean are the horror pits of Mussolini's fascist regime...
...The Rosselli Brothers were murdered in Paris last year...
...It might, indeed, have been written only a few days ago, so topical is the subject of their talk, so familiar the views expressed on it...
...German submarines have already been using Spanish bases and Spanish waters for a rehearsal of this particular activity...
...One roaring, picturesque character among the exiles was Captain Giolitti...
...Last autumn he bested conservative Gustavo Ross by 3,000 votes...
...The prisoners buy their own food, and eat it when and where they please...
...A semblance of prosperity was restored during tha -hectic twenties, largely as a result of huge loans thrust upon the Chilean government by Wall Street, which was smart enough not to keep its bonds as investments but promptly unloaded them on a sucker public...
...wrote the All Highest...
...Anthony...
...To the peasant and labor masses, whose heritage is so largely Indian, a Loyalist victory would be more than the triumph of a militant democracy...
...MURDERED AFTER ESCAPE TO PAMS WITH an ear-splitting roar the engines of the boat were turned on...
...Duce Exiles Foes to Dreaded Lipari Islands Few Escape From Italian Torture Isle Nitti, Rosselli, Lussu Amongst Few to Flee By WILLIAM J. MANKIN BENEATH m scowling portrait of Mussolini, a suave young fascist nicked my passport...
...Prom the cabin of the machine I gazed down and marveled that men had escaped from this volcanic rock and reached the African coast some 600 miles distant It is impossible to discover how many political opponent* of fascists have been forced into exile on Lipari...
...He was tumultously welcomed by a throng of 80,000 in Santiago's new national stadium...
...But the exile who wades into .the surf is carefully watched...
...For the most part, however, the exiles remain firm...
...Economically, South America should be organized as a unit...
...Loyalist leaders are not unaware of these sentiments...
...Impossible, signor," he snapped...
...Probably the number reaches 1,000...
...Suspicion points to II Duce's agents.—Ed...
...We present both stories In order fo give omr readers a complete picture of what occurred...
...There were also other reasons for their removal...
...The three young men were landed at Tunis, in North Africa, from whence they made their way to Paris...
...One by one the exhausted swimmers were dragged in...
...The shattering noise warned the guard...
...Nazis Launch New Naval Race To Aid Duce Drive on France By BERNARD MOORE THS NEW Leadebs Chief European Correspondent I ONDON.—As early as 1908, six years before the Great War, the question of Germany's naval armaments was one of England's major worries...
...Carlos Ibanez, who was implicated in their revolt and is looked to by the rightist landlords as their General Franco in the civil war they think to be not far distant...
...Then President Arturo Alessandri crushed it...
...In some cases, by special permission, wives and families have come to Lipari to join the prisoners in their exile...
...Fast, small warships cruise about the Islands...
...Even three escapes are three too many...
...To this the Socialists, who, when they ran their own candidate for the presidency, Col...
...The former Nazis were an important factor in the election to the presidency of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, whom they supported...
...A simple, kindly peasant from a village among the mountains discovered them and gave them food and water...
...And thereon hangs a crazy tale of politics...
...Certainly not less than 500 men have been shipped there...
...It is dependent for its support upon forces entirely too contradictory to cooperate for any major social aims...
...It happened, as they were discussing different plans, that one of the exiles, Signor D . . ., was due for libers, tion...
...There is only one bathtub on the island, a marvelous affair of painted tin belonging to a former naturalized American who, on returning to Lipari, his birthplace, was elected president of the local fascisti...
...At intervals their searchlights split the darkness and travel slowly over the rocky coast...
...at night, or at the hands of the Fascisti guards...
...Down to the Sea...
...The four men, who were making for the beach in the hope of finding a boat, realized that this chance had gone...
...Men are taken to the island shackled...
...That system has worked well for many yean now...
...Guards are everywhere, only too grateful for a chance to break the monotony by shooting to kill...
...Then the escapers discovered to their horror that the motorboat was drifting in the powerful currents into the brilliantly lit harbor of Lipari...
...For the rest, there is the sea in which to bathe...
...Of course, what makes the Ambassador's dispatch most topical is the announcement this week that Germany intends to double her submarine fleet, thus bringing it up to parity with Great Britain...
...Aa these things have a way of happening at such functions, the three principal persons at the luncheon found themselves after the meal taking coffee in a small room of the Embassy...
...To return to the dispatch...
...But he has always regarded the treaty as one of the most successful achievements in the way of appeasement and has frequently quoted it as an example of what can be done in the way of bi-lateral agreement...
...For, in a move that astounded Santiago and confounded Germany this week, the Chilean "Nazis" firmly repudiated HitUriam, and made plans for closer alliances with the Left...
...Underneath this quaking political situation rumble the conflicts of an economy in turmoil for almost a decade...
...On the Island of Lipari, 13,000 fishermen and sponge-divers find themselves host to the Italian political concentration camps where thousands of socialists and ex-trade union leaders—all opponents of II Duce— watt helplessly for death, carried by furious gales sweeping in from the see...
...Warships circle the island...
...Tot his kindly act the peasant was sentenced to five years' hard labor...
...Giolitti was the leader of the Italian Seamen's Federation, a fiery and aggressive personality whose prowess as a strike organizer pained for his native Genoa the niclzname cf "The Red Port of the Mediterranean...
...The Nacistas figured they'd have a better chance under a democratic government than under a rival dictator...
...When Wall Street went into a tailspin in 1929 Chile was jerked about like the little tike on the end in a crack-the-whip game...
...Ken, William J. Makin vividly describes life in II Duce's modern hell...
...Naval re-armament places the heaviest burden on the taxpayer who may well groan at the out-moding of Geneva with its frustrated attempts to reduce "national armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety...
...Marmaduke Grove, in 1937 polled 37<v of the votes, would add a program of extensive socialization...
...At the end of the crushing armaments the distance between the two fleets would still be great and we shoulh not be any nearer to our object...
...If England wants war, just let her start it...
...Before he left for the mainland be promised to assist the trio and arranged for an underground system of communication with them on the island...
...The parity, incidentally, will be in tonnage only...
...The popularity of the Duce after the failure of attempts-to assassinate him made it possible, however, for him to challenge the power of the defiant ses captain...
...Their acceptance of the fascist faith is received in silence by the others...
...When these three men found themselves on the island of Lipari they soon formed a dangerous trio determined to escape...
...They could even see the guards with rifle* parading the beach...
...By Paul Porter Chile's Popular Front CHILE begins the New Year with a popular front government— ^ the first of its kind in the new world—but it is doubtful if it will last the year out...
...Bat there are steamers," I insisted...
...During the day, the fascist gaolers are constantly on the alert...
...M .A M Let us break hAm^ off here to read ¦¦^¦li^inillllllW b marginal note Mussolini appended by the Kaiser in his palace in Potsdam, j Thirty years after it is highly reminiscent of the Berchtesgaden style of comment...
...But from oar airplane, its isolation and suitability • as a prison for forgotten men was emphasized...
...a more serious aspect...
...Rifle-butts are used by the guards on those exiles who are found outside their quarters after sunset...
...The Islands are not to be visited...
...When it was finally announced that they had arrived in Paris, Roaselli's brother, living quietly in Florence, was deported as a suspicious character to the island of Uitica...
...On July 28 of that year there took place at the German Embassy in Carlton House Terrace a luncheon party given by the Ambassador, Count Metternich', at which were present Sir .Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, and Mr...
...And with finality the passport was handed back to me...
...IF this interpretation of Ger-* many's decision is c o r r e ct, Italy's threatening attitude towards France in the Mediterranean assume...
...Why did they command their followers to vote for Aguirre...
...There is reason to believe that their planned seizure of power was discovered and prematurely forced by the American naval intelligence service (Germany and the U. S. see-saw for first place in Chilean imports...
...Four or five men club together and form a musketeer alliance, which carries them through the bad times...
...well give her what for...
...They may walk the streets of the.town and find work, if work exists...
...It is generally believed that she will seek to lay the blame for her decision on alleged submarine building by Soviet Russia and on the fact that the United States has established an Atlantic Squadron...
...The sweeping reorganization accomplished by the party this week changed its uniform, rules, and salute, all in a drive to establish clearly that the group wanted and had no affiliation*, actual or spiritual with the Hitler regime...
...Until then Chile had produced a major share of the world's supply They accounted for 60% of her revenue in 1913...
...Lipari is well named "be home of the winds...
...Grateful chaps that they ore, the Nacistas paraded in green shirts and military caps a fortnight ago to welcome the return from Argentina of Gen...
...It leaped forward...
...YOU may well ask, is this 1908 or 1938 ? For the ingredients of the mixture are surprisingly similar...
...In the accompanying article, printed through the courtesy of the new magazine...
...note...
...Mot for tourists, and certainly not for journalist...
...Nitti is the nephew and namesake of Francesco Nitti, Italy's exiled Liberal ex-premier...
...Rosselli and Nitti were only 90 years old and Lussu 86 at the time of their sssape in July, 1920...
...T*HE first attempt to escape took place two * years after Lipari had been established as a penal settlement...
...OLD PRISONERS AW NEW ARRIVALS the most part the prisoners are quar-* ; tared in the low white houses of the island's principal town...
...HEY try to keep their minds active by lec-* tures and amateur play societies among themselves...
...At the same time there are always outside teachers eager to impart the principles of fascism to any exile who shows signs of weakening...
...arficfe by Pam\ Porter en the Chilean situation wet written before the story on the change la the local Nazi Party broke...
...The motorboat left all its pursuers behind...
...The record of their conversation, kept in the Diplomatic Correspondence of the German Foreign Office, makes interesting reading today...
...Dirt and disease flourish during the hot months...
...Already Germany has three more submarines than the British navy...
...But they have only three members of their party in the new cabinet, and partial achievement of the campaign planks would be the utmost they can expect at this time...
...They recall, too, that the German conception of the totalitarian «war involves the use of planes for the destruction of electric power, water works and the demoralization of the civilian population generally, and the intensive use of submarines at sea 4ot the maintenance of a thoroughgoing blockade...
...REMEMBER that the war in Spain is close to the hearts of *^ Latin-Americans...
...Not unnaturally, he warned of a rightist putsch...
...They base to adjust themselves to a climate that take* a heavy toll on their lives...
...The others remain, or have been transported to the island of Ponza...
...said, we are being pushed unwillingly into the perilous position of seeing the spectre of w a ry rising on ^ ^. \be horizon—a .^ spectre which / 4kmm both Mr...
...Nevertheless, I did see the Islands, those volcanic humps rising out of the Mediterranean which the Duce decided some years ago should be a place of banishment for those whose political opinions were inconvenient to the existing regime in Italy...
...Immediately rifle-shots were stabbing the darkness, the radio woke to life and warned all Italian ships in the vicinity, a searchlight flung its beams upon the dancing waves...
...There is a strict rule that no prisoner shall leave his quarters between sunset and sunrise...
...THE Chilean Nacistas (Nazis) are a small party, smaller even * than the Communists who in Chile enjoy their greatest parliamentary strength outside of Russia and France...
...Each day they answer the roll call, the one duty which the fascist guards insist upon inexorably...
...Those aims, if the popular front election program has meaning, are to provide jobs, raise wages, lower prices, and develop public works...
...Of course, that isn't wanted by the imperialist nations that via for the South Amercian trad*—the United State*, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan...
...The hitch in that is that none of the L*tin-American nation...
...With a race in fleet building the tension would unavoidably be increased, and therewith at the same time the danger of a collision would grow...
...JOW naval experts here know *~ nothing of any exceptional circumstances having arisen that would justify Germany's action, and Germany, in notifying her intentions, has mentioned none...
...The Negrin government sent the well-known Socialist Indalecio Prieto as a special ambassador to the Aguirre inaugural...
...Aguirre has pardoned all Nacistas arrested after the putsch that flopped, and has removed seven high army officers who put down the revolt...
...Chamberlain was Prime Minister that, in 1935, Sir John Simon negotiated with Germany the Anglo-German Naval Treaty...
...Their departure back to the mainland is soon arranged...
...For the rest, they must eke out their existence as best they can...
...Desperate, the fugitives phinged into the scrub that covered the lower slopes of the mountains of the island...
...In this penal settlement there have been at least eight or ten ex-members of the Chamber of Deputies, several former Cabinet Ministers, one or two former generals, and a host of writers and political journalists...
...The morning sunshine lit up the cultivated elope* of the double hump that marks Lipari, which has been celled the Devil's Island of fascist Opponents...
...For on the principle that when father turns we all turn, when Germany begins heavy naval building, ever naval poWer will start building too...
...Moreover, among the exiles themselves are many who are paid to listen, the stool-pigeons and agents provocateurs who can assimilate any plans fo rescape, convey them quickly to the authorities...
...Others upon whom President Pedro Aguirre Cerda must depend don't even want the campaign planks enacted into law...
...The unfortunate culprit is trussed in the most acute, aching-muscle manner, and left for many hours at a time...
...The Nacistas probably swung not more than 15,000 votes, but that was enough to clinch the election...
...How useless this race in armaments becomes was admirably pointed out by Mr...
Vol. 22 • January 1939 • No. 3
