THE REPUBLIC OF ITALY

e [Music] longest famed city of the western world is Rome capital of the ancient Roman Empire seat of government of the Roman Catholic church and finally capital of modern Italy of ancient Rome there remain today only ruins the Forum heart of the Roman Republic the Coliseum where the later Emperors appease the citizens with circuses the castle of St Angelo once the emperor Hadrian's tomb but the Roman Catholic church has long outlived the Pagan Empire which persecuted it and the power Rome exerts today emanates chiefly from the official residence of the popes called the Vatican from its situation on the historic Vatican Hill source of moral and spiritual guidance for over 330 million Catholics throughout the world Vatican City is an independent self-contained state within Rome's limits to the church's communicants in every land the pronouncements of the Pope issued in Solomon cyclicals in many languages are binding in spiritual matters and though the church no longer holds the immense temporal influence it once exercised its spiritual power gives it great weight in temporal concerns thus the Diplomatic list of regularly accredited envoys to the Vatican includes ambassadors and ministers from many nations the largest of them China the smallest the tiny Republic of San Marino Vatican City is barely 1 sixth of a mile from end to end Beyond its walls built in the 9th century for protection against Saron invaders no Pope set foot from 1870 when the old papal state was absorbed into the New Kingdom of Italy until 1929 in that year the Lan treaty restored the Vatican sovereignty though but a fraction of its former size it again enjoyed its own independent government and by means of its own railroad had unhampered access to the outside world within this tiny state are gathered artistic riches unsurpassed in any of the world's great Nations when the treasures of Imperial Rome's almost forgotten culture were first Unearthed by Renaissance archaeologists the Pop's insatiable art collectors acquired the best pieces for their palaces for centuries the popes commanded the talents of the greatest artists of each age filled their Galleries and their chapels with Works which impress upon the beholder the glory and Majesty of the Church of Rome in the fame cistin Chapel Pop's Julius second and Paul third set the genius of the great Michelangelo to work out of 12 Years of labor on the walls and ceiling came masterpieces as Monumental as any ever painted The Immortal murals of the creation and the last judgment millions of tourists have marveled at these murals but perhaps even more impressive as an expression of the church's Grandeur is the 400-year-old Basilica of St Peters designed in part by the same Michelangelo and still regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of the world [Music] beneath the cathedral are the vaulted Crypts where lie entombed most of the popes of the past pontiffs who have shephered the church safely through almost 2,000 untranquilize by maintaining unbroken its policy of political neutrality the Vatican escaped the catastrophe and ruin which engulfed the Italian peninsula in few countries of Europe was destruction more complete than in Italy first of the AIS Nations to fall millions of Italians straggling back to the shattered towns and Villages that had once been home found that they had lost everything reduced to political and economic bankruptcy they had bitter cause to repent the part they had played in one of the sorious chapters of Italy's long history in the political chaos that followed World War I an unscrupulous Adventurer Bonito musolini seized power in Italy promising to restore the Grandeur of Imperial Rome he won over the easygoing Italians to his schemes for military [Applause] aggression by 1935 musolini had committed Italy to the path of Conquest the SE of helpless Ethiopia was easy in 1936 uch sent his Victorious Legions to help impose fascism upon [Music] Spain in 1939 puffed with his quick success uch signed a 10-year military alliance with Hitler backed by all the power of Nazi Germany melini sent his Jackal hordes into defeated France confident of an easy victory for uch nothing could go wrong now but something did go wrong within 3 years Italy's Empire was lost and melini was a deflated nobody faing on the man who had rescued him from prison when Allied troops entered Rome in 1944 a people profoundly weary of War welcomed them as liberators speedily these troops set to work to erase fascism both in symble and in fact from the consciousness of the Italian people a task of Staggering magnitude faced the Allied Control Commission made up of British and American officers they had to set on its feet again an almost totally crippled and demoralized Country most of Italy's Bridges highways and railroads practically her entire transportation system had been demolished either by the Allied offensive or by the retreating Germans these had to be constructed with all speed to restore Transportation facilities Allied Engineers found almost completely wrecked the major installations upon which Italy had depended for light and power these had to be salvaged when possible or built a new such great lowland Farm areas as the Ponting marshes flooded by the Germans had become a potential source of epidemics in these regions the Allies undertook military health control measures under the direction of army doctors the newly developed insecticide DDT was used to wipe out the breeding grounds of malaria bearing mosquitoes and to rid homes of typhus bearing lice Allied Shipping was faced with the problem of bringing adequate food supply to the conquered [Music] Nation even when food did arrive in Italian pts there still remained the big problem of distribution throughout a country in which Transportation was badly crippled yet over and above the food brought in for Allied fighting forces 1 mil 107,000 tons were made available to the people of Italy in the first 18 months of occupation through Italian government distribution centers and according to allied military government regulations these supplies were issued to long lines of hungry people the food doled out proved barely enough to keep them from starvation ill-fed ill clothed and at their wits end the Italian people came to realize that the consequences of the war they had entered upon so lightly were not escaped by surrender or even by the generosity of their conquerors ahead of Italy still lay the long road back to self-support and self-respect the unhappy bewildered Italian people totally confused politically were completely overwhelmed by shattering Revelations of the state into which 20 odd years of fascism and axis tyranny had led Italy typical of such shocks was the disclosure of the murders in Rome's arotin caves where 320 of Italian hostages had been wanly murdered by the Nazi occupation forces all of Rome shared in the hatred and revulsion against Italy's former Ally as relatives of the victims appeared to identify their loved ones from the pitifully meager scraps of personal belongings and clothing which remained [Music] Italy's path of Imperial Conquest had brought 320 Roman citizens to a Bitter End in the quick climb of the tin caves on the list of Those whom Italy's fascist policy officials had turned over to the Germans for execution every name meant tragedy to some Italian family [Music] [Music] it was not until 3 and a half months later that liberated Italy was able to bring to Justice some of those implicated while the Germans responsible for the massacre had escaped the Italians had captured Petro Caruso Rome's fascist chief of police who had handed over his countryman for execution the relatives of the murdered hostages were permitted to attend the trial to them all the talk of the lawyers their endless legalisms and technicalities me nothing they only knew that kuso was guilty and must be made to pay along with his accomplice Donato Keta who had also been captured and when they found themselves Within Reach of Cora mob violence and hatred so inevitably bred by tyranny burst out of [Music] [Applause] [Music] control within a few minutes ketta had met the terrible fate later to be suffered by his ruthless Master musolini the Italian people who Bartered their freedom for a fascist dream of Conquest have paid dearly in social and political chaos in hunger and degradation and if as they set out on the long hard road to reconstruction they have learned anything from their bitter experience it is that the nation's strength must from now on res IDE not in militarism but in sober and fruitful industry so that the Italy of tomorrow may find its salvation in a world at peace [Applause]