AMG Bars Freedom in Sicily, Attracts Fascists - A Report on Its Operation!s
STURZO, LUIGI
AMG Bars Freedom in Sicily, Attracts Fascists — A Report on Its Operation!s Don Luigi Sturzo Writes a Biting Criticism of Lord Rennell's Views By LUIGI STURZO | READ with a certain curiosity the...
...I dislike our class system, and consider that we ought to pat an end to it new, but it is only fair to add that the strange social snobbery it produces runs right through our society, influencing the workers iust as it does members of other classes, and that it is more democratic than the foreign observer imagines...
...tajren aa-entirely representative of the people here...
...For in ,he eutarim the population structure of Ger-aasrr^fcad been weighted heavily in favor ef aid- age...
...I should l^ce here to note parenthetically the curious AMG document concerning this appointment, which runs: "1 order Attorney Francesco Mulatto...
...For that Russian periodical I. B. Priestley wrote s series of articles on tbe English character...
...r»--;^| - . He denied, to he sore, that the AMG was favoring reactionaries bat lit added that in a country still partially at war the Allies must depend on those persons cant sidered **m the best position to cooperate wfth u...
...So far as Sicily ia concerned, the oStosrs Of the AMG shosJd tears si aw thing about aha re mote and recent part of the island's history instead of sisaply t si Bag nsuspapa* eonaayhsdeuts that Sicilian* in pre-Feasiei times 'aewsya' used to ask the advice of the local "hp n i l " before casting their vote at elect ions They need not go so far back as the Sicilian Vespers and the rebellion against the Spaniards Let thorn, start with 1812 when the Sicilians IMaiiil a liberal constitution from the King, guaranteed to them by the Erqrliah, but which the Sing failed to observe and the English were slatngelj unable to preserve for them After taurty-cix years of struggles aad petitions cost to both Naples and London the Sicilians made a s their minds to revolt...
...This mention ef the M***4 seems to me suspect...
...there are only Fascists, exgstoFateisto, reactionaries, nepotists and "Mafliosi...
...But it is easy to overestimate the importance of tradition in England...
...Wc cannot irrord tr> tare therr cause' leas seriously than they themselves have taken it...
...It has paid a terrible price for its fidelity...
...Our climate knows no extremes of heat and cold...
...unable to find the stuff of political lesdera...
...they visit our ancient cathedral cities and universities and literary shrines, and not our great industrial centers...
...Bat there are two valid reasons: one the description of the Englishman would be hast as interesting to the American, and second, the circumstances under which ; the letters are written...
...AMG Bars Freedom in Sicily, Attracts Fascists — A Report on Its Operation!s Don Luigi Sturzo Writes a Biting Criticism of Lord Rennell's Views By LUIGI STURZO | READ with a certain curiosity the interview accorded by Lord rtehneTC ln*Ka1W| * to the correspondent of the New Leader of New York and the "News CJjjpM of London...
...after the esthasteem of the first days of Bhers two...
...formerly* a deputy to Parliament, to assume today the onVe of acting prefect of the prevtaice «f Palermo...
...An eye-witness who has made sacrifices for the cause he describes is a reliable commentator on that cause...
...They have slaughtered the innocents in many conquered lands...
...Although I,believe that you Russians and we i English- have much in common, and are closer to each other than we are to some other European-nations...
...Everything is on a small aide, rather uncertainly outlined, moderate in tone, subtly graded, undramatic...
...Since the ABaB rvverameata do aot yet allow dviUaa saaffH to pass between Soathern Iuly aad gliaWf sad the raited States I have no way ef| disappeared from the face of the earth, aal one might be led te believe from Lard ipfl LORD RENNELL has found, on the oJs> hand, that the Mama baa raised Ma head since the fall of Fascism because vriftjj "Maffiori" who had served their Jail serrtenA and had been released have returned to their an "honorable* trade...
...than before the AJued occupation...
...Lord Rennell, of course, ego find so leader...
...7} J. B. Priestley Writes: A Letter to the Russian People By J.B.PRIESTLEY FVEAR TV AN: :"^At jest ! am ftrlfllling my pledge to give you—and, I hope, a whole host of other Russian friende—some account of the English people...
...Only a few years ago, during a par-tisnJariy thick fog that held up shipping, one of eTff*ntrwspaper8 came out with the placard &>n<rnent Isolated...
...He * rite* that the adstis istraties la inept aad that worst of all there is so liberty...
...Before the time ef ma* AMG aad dwriags the Fascist regime, eveeF1 after the beginning ef the war, **a Mtt*|-i bird" occasionally brought me letters aH tftev*^ way front Sicily te Florida...
...That this land was able to wage total war twice in twenty-five years should mislead no one...
...I tnew many such men, even outside my "popular" Ptkrty, who were able and honest ad* aa^^^P^e^acV^tT^^n^e^ Leaf RenaeH's declaration, the same statement nap made by Herbert L. Matthews, conaWWejW oritae Ivew Tari Times...
...This feeling was much too optimistic...
...Ho sensible person will doubt that the guilty must be punished, or that the guilt itself must be proclaimed throughout the world...
...in sn American journal...
...the deportation of workers to factories in Germany—these are some of the crimes to which Hitler has resorted in a blind and furious desire te subdue the earth Nor are the Black Shirts and Brown Shirts .the only guilty Those who were willing, te condone these outrages if only the swastika became the sign under which victory could be won share in the responsibility for the abominations which have seen heaped upon Europe...
...and both Seger and Marck have suffered for their convictions...
...And it is possible that the English reluctance to let go completely of the past, to make clean sweeps, is partly the result of this strong reaction against the regime of the military Puritans...
...V' * - * A ND of course our history has been very dif-• . fy^eht...
...nine-tenths of the island if free front harm, though there, are iiotorions gangsters, too...
...This class is of course very English and ¦f^We1 ^mfSkW^n^Sf ways from ruling dasses elsewhere...
...If I am recommending very specially what the authors of the folfowing pages have to say, it is not because spokesmen for different points of view are without merit, or even because I agree with Gerhart Seger and Siegfried Merck in every detail...
...By DR...
...In feet the wfceW story of the Maflia can be reduced to the enahs)fa|' of an ordinary criminal band .touched up wjfik local color and surrounded by an aura of legeae) as are the famous brigands of Calsbria...
...or tbe world iCpC*«sieV...
...Hitler would burn a deep brand upon the Genpan soul...
...one ef ttjO laeat members ef my "Popolsr" Party,* wrote te me: "The groap of oar friends el the old guard has thinned eat bat Ha raaJaS ere swelled daily by yeomger man ef perQ kaj» even better aeanry...
...But the narrow religious fanatics who ran this revolutionary movement were very unpopular with the people, who were delighted to be rid of them...
...The cry for freedom from Palermo was heard all over Italy and as far away as Psris sad Vienna...
...reckon with it a* a land hollowed out by privation and defeat...
...The roots of his movement went far deeper than one realized...
...The bombing of defense-teas Rotterdam: the rasing ef the Warsaw ghetto...
...The book carries sn introduction by George N. Shnster, president of Hunter College, who has been actively connected with a number of democratic German organizations...
...This, we must admit, is Fascist style...
...I had not realized to what an extent helaeiasd ranegiruntten...
...Let us hope that he wilt not i*rrtta«e the methods of MuseoHni: In reality there was never any Maflia in Sicily other than that around Palermo and some western towns...
...In Palermo amd ether towns the** wet a eefB (Continned or...
...prefect of the province of Palermo who is said by the new local paper, Sicilia Liberate, never to have been a Fascist...
...In the middle of this period, whan the country was sternly governed by Cromwell and his major-generals, there was a determined attempt to make a clean break with the past...
...We English are strongly individualistic in little things, but having lived undisturbed* for centuries on our inland, we have developed an unusual sense xif;earnmnnit}- and deep fellow...
...Only a relatively few months had gone by since one.was talking to republican statesmen and officials in Berlin, since the religious and labor organisations of the country were freely conducting their many activities, nnd since the journalist or the artist was going about his business un-trammeled...
...It is the ghost of feudalism haunting s highly udustrialired society that until 1919 moved uneasily between plutocracy aad democracy...
...The -tell taken by the straggle which raged until 1918 was tragic and tremen-ious...
...We aiay be certain that if the decent Germans eho **rviTe jhia ordeal VwaUx with men >f good will ewai/ebete It may be possible to and op the wounds of war and to begin, slowly uai es6nfafiy...
...We became a .nation very early, and have noi known an invader for nearly a thousand years...
...And the English should not be judged by their official representatives, for even now they tend to be drawn from a comparatively small class, which has developed a manner and outlook of its own...
...This book by the editor of the Neue Volksseitnng and a distinguished German philosopher is an important contribution to the voluminous literature on "The German Problem...
...PHIS book is concerned with as important and absorbing a question as mankind has asked itself in a hundred years...
...those inevitably drawn to Lord Rennell...
...Still oris remained too deeply conscious of the suppressed Germany not to feel that it was the important thing, aad that the Nazis were a gang which had temporarily gamed a prominence not rightly theirs...
...they set the day as January 12, 1848, called together their Parliament and threatened open war...
...It is other things that show such a Sicilian nepotism...
...fWW^tfitt I must warn you against a very very common mistake—and that is the mistake °* assuming that* the typical member of our small aoverning class is the typical Englishman...
...The arrogant, harshly domineering ruling classes of many European countries have no parallel in England...
...A man like Seger, whose family tree suffers from no "blight" in terms ef Nazi biology, doesn't get himself put into a concentration camp, doesn't go into exile, unless he is quite sure that Hitler must be fought with all the energy a decent human being can muster...
...TJ-"» The world ami told in no uncertain terms that m a year'or less Mussolini had accomplished what had been impossible for either the Bougf bona ef Naples or the Liberal Italian govern...
...And now V 'Deep'gloom was settling over the country, a gloom which would slowly take on the color of blood...
...The same thing hsppssod again in I860 after twelve mere years of S>sr>os tyranny with its accompaniment of prison and exile...
...We print the introduction below...
...Such a criterion is reaeonableT but it is not easy to understand why those "hi the best position" turned out so oftet to be*x-r'asei»ts, ftypto-Fascists and reactionaries instead of men who wert neaaw Fascist* or else government employees obliged to assume Party membership but immune from the Fascist virus...
...GEORGE N. SHUSTER President, Hunter College, New York...
...a marked sense of humor...
...What will Germany be and db when this war is over ? Many have already tried to find an answer...
...In on* aa*i ter...
...The English countryside, though much of it has been spoilt by a greedy and short-sighted industrialism, is one of the most beautiful in the world, but it has no sudden dramatic beauty, no awe-inspiring grandeur, no vistas of riotous color...
...dated September SO...
...He rsaaglahte that food i. quite insumcieut-bm...
...Tk« rule of the A3tG ha* been mere severe, where political matter* arc concerned, than that of amy other country M wmr wfth perhaps the exception of GerMereover filer tack of Lord Rennell and his aides was not to find political leaders but rather to discover suitable administrators for township*, provinces, banks, labor groups and charitable enterprises among men who had belonged to neither the Fascist gangs nor to aristocratic land-owning circles He saw that there was much nepotism in southern Italy and Sicily...
...Among tbe names of those elevated to positions of power in Sicily I see that of the former deputy to the Italian Parliament Francesco Musette, new...
...on trucks and following etpj} raids by mass trial* and prison sentences...
...And all this applies too to the English mind •fitd temperament...
...O And where are the younger men was wera*M • never Fascists...
...merits during a century ef efforTaT 'Anaamav...
...There is simply no comparison between the Kaiser's armies which took the field and :he fereon'marshaled by Adolf Hitler, however fniwlilnafb these last mem have been...
...The articles are quite interesting and we pre...
...For they were, after all, the first fighters against Natism...
...but it is wrong to assume ^MvelfaViiba...
...Lord Rennell had only to recall the example of the Foreign Office in London, a neat of sons of wellborn families, to realise that nepotism is not an exclusively Italian phenomenon...
...Before attempting to throw some light on these puzzling differences, I should like to point out once again those traits that your people and mine appear to have in common: a oeep love of their own country...
...And because other people could not merely walk Mbj|i$n* frontier,, which might he constantly CWBgingj' but had to cross the seas to reach us, wehave always been very conscious of the wcr^rat they were "foreigners" and we were English...
...It is easy, pleasant, •sstful to Uve with...
...It is a temperate, misty kind of climate, sometimes uncomfortable and rather depressing, but never really unfriendly for long...
...t| Lord RenneQ's answer to this objection was: "Up to now (October 15) AMG has 4om» »cmi« few Italian ibnuimhi wtvn fi re Qualified as Dohtkal leaden.'' In -wHMtff this reply he forgot one very important fact: in the telTtUry administered by tbe AMG "polities" f» banned by order of the Allied Military Command, aad hence the people have no freedom <*f either pre** or assembly...
...I myself was born and brought up an industrial town, and although my father was a schoolmaster, his father—and most*' of"' my relations—worked in the local mills...
...TpODAY we must not commit the opposite * blunder and let ourselves be too optimistic, it is .{rue that Nazis have ¦committed outrages during'the course of this war which make the blood of even a veteran reader of history run cold...
...may ton against the AMG and taas to Communism or neo Fascism for Wader Shis...
...But even here the manner is apt to be misleading, for the continental observer, unless he knows English life well, will imagine that this class is more dominating and securely privileged than it actually is...
...1942...
...V ~ ff "we "are realistic and" not emotional about poet-war Germany, we shall, it seems to roe...
...root Script urn...
...this ease wal be i s r snore instructive than that of some "Maffaase," seaman* or fake, who baa buud op a racket asmasd the black market...
...Whether he region win, in the life time of those who ¦end thk book, regain even a- measure of tbe ¦eiativc prosperity it has known is an open [ueetlon the answer to which no one knows...
...The magazine is similar to the bright little periodical "Britain" published in this country...
...Going to a foreign country and learning a strange language are no easy ts\sks, and one who like Marck performs them both in order the better to take his part in the opposition to NazfSm ds worjhw, of respect...
...an easy and patient comradeship...
...Thus it is typ-icsl of the German mentality that Hess should have thought that the Duke of Hamilton, to whom he flew, had great political influence, whereas in fact any .trade union leader has more real influence...
...I am writing this introduction because it seems to me that the chapters which follow discuss the future of Germany realistically, plausibly and in the spirit of dedication to the loftiest social aims of mankind...
...asrt rTovoricfci IT ai y be -strange to •ad a "}etter" to a Russian, explaining the English character and written by nn Eng. lishman...
...Lieutenant Colonel Charles Poletti could hare furnished him with other examples of political favoritism from the annals of American party practices whereby the friends and relatives of successful politicians become officeholders in the'r tarn...
...This week the Rand School Press published "Germany to Be or Not to Be" by Gerhart Seger and Siegfried Marck...
...with Am inevitable result that such tourists often mistake the character of Oe eemntry^ Thus before" the war our America*7 friends often talked as if we English were'all living in the past, overlooking the fact that our designers and engineers had built the fastest liner, the fastest car, ami the fastest airplane in the world...
...It is full of melting hazy greens and blues and grays...
...the face of the rise of the Masse »aj aanaYTwiun of Fascism Later many of the "Mafiaat" became Fascists, other were Jailed...
...I know too that often our behavior pasties you and may lead you to draw wrong conclusions front it...
...Ten years ago at this very time I was witnessing the Nazi seizure of full power over Germany...
...And certainly one reason why it was able to pay that price without flinching was its certainty that the religious, ethical and social principle by which the pre-Nazi Fatherland had been guided was actually, demonstrably, the mainspring of a civilization" aad a social organization incomparably better than what National Socialism could produce...
...But in spite of that we nanst remember those who have struggled against' the sppressor th the prisons, the churches, the factories and the homes ef Germany...
...Tourists from newer countries naturally look for what is ouaint and old in England...
...I have received this wee* news from a friend who has bees is Skttj for several meetha...
...Even so the hidden Germany has lived on...
...In the seventeenth century the English were regarded as the most revolutionary and violent people in Western Europe...
...Sicilian "nepotism" would pale...
...England has a curious class system of her own, which is now being broken *>Fn by the war, but for a long time it has not'been a country of aristocrats and peasants...
...Before Fascism we should have read that "Charles Pulettj had named so-and-so as acting prefect.*' Now I should like to ask if all the other former Sicilian deputies have peraaaad...
...sent them for the first time here te American readers...
...Since then though we have had many changes, and indeed have gene through revolutions, the changes have geaernHy been slow and gradual, and the revolutions only visible to the historian...
...When this conflict ends with the rfwmph of the United Netmna, Central Europe rill be found to have been ravaged as it hast vas during the Thirty Yeart^War...
...He aas*rta that whst Ressoll caDs the Ms*, u. Hi.pl, gsagtecrhu, s*4 fasTsWes g v r ^ T ? . ^ Germany—To Be or Not to Be Can We Build a Democratic Reich...
...The political and social scene has been one of slowly dissolving views...
...We are never far from the sea...
...a sense of community and, with it, a distrust of extreme individualism...
...Here, as in the landscape, it is all uncertain outlines, subtle gradations, haziness and mist * * » IAM not going to bore you with history, but one glance into our past will be very useful...
...re rebuild human society I have aid, "men of good wilk* They must be just *e query on wknta tatntsre...
...Or course some ef them are dead, but sornetef them must have survived as well as many of* aesrisers of labor unions and eimpsiailMK mayors, provincial and township councUnsjif...
...The barrlej^'of the tea enabled tts to develop our national consciousness, chAyacteristics, customs and institutions, at a ^rojmrativeiy early stage in European history...
...and a delight in simple pleasures—games nnd pastimes, the enjoyment of country scenes, of flowers and birds and animals...
...Ntariy all English people, belong to tbe W**m W bWwfafcfi, nmiffour out of five live h> towns...
...Now what you must first remember about ua is that we live on a small island and not in a great continental country...
...When Lord Rennell -alii a boy in Rome with his father, then aisflnsaagfc to' the Fascist government, he probably 'hejal of the deeds of the notorious prefect ami sraf cleaned out the Sicilian Maifia nmklstjPtanfgf) of Fascist publicity, surrounding entire vu^jajas with troops, leading whole families, women©* children uieloded...
...He fears that fHiiWass...
...He should rem ember that one of his own qualifications for being the head of the AMG is the fact that he is the son of a former British ambassador to Italy (in tbe days of Mussolini) and a member of the Morgan Bank whose loan to Mussolini rescued the dictator from financial ruin...
...naturally, because there is not yet freedom in Sicily...
...Some time ago, -.the British established a magazine in Moscow with the purpose of estabfeMng cultural relations...
...Based en their own setive experience in Germany the authors discuss the questions of "re-education" revolution and peace...
...this fact served as a publicity stent far the benefit of ah the Bennetts, the Grahams, the Canada aad other English and American admirers at the ahaee...
...That is why the best English landscape paintings have been in water-color...
...At this time there was no Lord ateaari...
...Page Na...
...This is a great deal to have in common, aad on this foundation, with further knowledge of each other, we can build a secure understanding...
...Beside such examples...
...It 1*5 am* amid that the English talk less than moat peapls- eeennee they understand each other so well,find one word will do where tola mixture of Tammany Hall and Caucagej gangsterism, but in such doses rniiiaoisd I s thi| American cosmterpert that we aaaossd term gSBsj tlemen the "MaStesi" of Partsnieo whs for thtrty > years elected Vittorio FasSSeehl Oriands as a deputy to Parliament Muaaolini re aimed that the Sicilian "MaStosi" wore letting off stosca if...
...The past has always been allowed to finger on...
...Signed) Charles Poletti, Lieutenant-Colonel and Officer attached to Civilian Affairs...
...I think Seger could, not have succeeded had he not been upheld by the deep and abiding conviction that Germany would some day be herself again—that the countless thousands who have lived through ghastly, tortured nights in Himmler's prisons would in the end use freedom to build an age which would rear in peace generations of free men...
...The Enrlish class system is really aniqne...
...indeed, afttr thirty-two years of Beurhep tyranny and with exiles dispersed all over the world, the leaders of 1848 found themselves, without the .aspiration of »B AMG but simply at the caul at freedom...
...living...
...The country has been haunted by the ghosts ef old systems...
...They stood and looked the monster squarely in the eyes at a time when it was still: quite fashionable here and elsewhere, to believe that Goering was a hale and hearty chap, with a pretty wife...
...in all probability, because Lord Rennell hen heard that there are some "MaffiosT at VttJ§ Graxia or at Mezzoiuso (villages pear' Palm'nam he believes that all of Sicily ia infested .wJK them...
...Perhaps the spectacle then seemed more surprising than shocking...
...They fit their ickground • perfectly, as people nearly always dov:rf they seem very different from most people elsewhere (and a Dutchman who lived in Jnghuia for fears once wrote a book called Tkt English.-—Are They Hu.ma.nl) that is because the island* itself is so different...
...The people are like their Simate and their countryside...
...Let Charles Poletti ten has Chief about Auasfso and Frank CooteUo...
Vol. 26 • December 1943 • No. 50
