Word: neutral
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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When the war started many suspected that Italy declared neutrality because her big ally Germany thought Italy would be more helpful as a friendly neutral than as a warring partner. Whatever Germany's advice in the matter (and gossip in Roman diplomatic circles has it that the Führer tried to persuade the Italians to attack Yugoslavia at the time the Germans attacked the Poles), all evidence points to the belief that neutrality was also Italy's own sincere choice. Nor are there lacking indications that the first cracks in the Rome-Berlin Axis have begun...
...Duce, he has performed the difficult feat of remaining neutral between those who want to stay neutral in the war and those who want to join Germany. Meanwhile, his power has noticeably waned. For one reason or another he handed over to the Prince of Piedmont the command of half the Italian Army. The pay of his own Fascist militiamen, who formed the regime's counter-revolutionary force, was suddenly reduced from eight lire (40?) a day to one lira, at the same time that the Army private's pay was increased from a few centesimi...
Thus in many ways the strain of warfare is more visible in neutral Italy than in warring France or Britain. Italians who used to drink from five to six cups of coffee daily have had to cut it out altogether. Gasoline is strictly rationed. The wartime one-meat-course meal has been ordered and instead of one voluntary meatless day a week (Friday), there are now two enforced ones (Thursday and Friday). Such luxuries as night clubs have been prohibited altogether...
Viva Il Re! If Italy loses her fight to remain neutral, what side will she join in war? The Fascist regime's prestige was staked on the German alliance, and every doubt about that alliance indicates that the regime is slipping. Those with ears to the ground in Italy (and Signor Mussolini is one of them) know that the Italian people have always disliked the German alliance. There are more than 1,000,000 Italian World War veterans who fought against Germany. Throughout Italy there are monuments to the Italian dead of World War I. After more than...
...submarine-and first reports of the sinking of the Clement led the world to believe it had been attacked by a U-boat. Survivors told a different story. Bound with a cargo of gasoline from Pernambuco, Brazil, to Bahia, standing about 70 miles offshore (580 miles inside the neutral zone set up by the Panama Conference; TIME, Oct. 9), the Clement was plugging along at her weary ten-knot pace when members of the crew heard an airplane. The plane circled around, shot bursts of machine-gun fire into the air. Captain F. C. P. Harris stopped ship. A "warship...