European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 17, 1948, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes saturday april 17, 29,000,000 May vote in record Italy ballot by Frank o Brien and John Mcknight Rome april 16 a Twenty nine million italians Are old enough to vote and it looks like just about All of them will do that sunday in Europe s and the world s most important postwar  pre electoral travel these two correspondents have talked with communists socialists of Bot wings Christian democrats monarchists and Neo fascists with sol Diers policemen Carabiniero taxi Drivers vaudeville actors Boot Blacks and the jobless. Of them All North and South this question was asked what will make a Man or a woman vote this Way or that in your Region with few exceptions most of them in the South they replied that it was the state of the outside world. Internal economic and social questions pressing though they Are have been submerged in the tidal wave of International events. Thousands switch sides Here Are the major conclusions we have reached 1hundreds of thousands who three months ago were Fence Sitters or leftist inclined will vote against communism. They will be enough to deny the communist controlled popular front an absolute majority in the new parliament and enough possibly to make Premier Alcide de Gasperi s Christian democrats the biggest single party or bloc.2biggest Factor in the Drift away from the communists bloc Are repeated actions by Russia which have brought even Good communists tothe Edge of despair. Had Russia stayed quiet the last four months the communists might have won. Her no on Trieste merely capped the sad Story that started with Czechoslovakia. 3biggest Factor in the Drift to the Christian democrats is the Marshall plan. Required opposition to it dictated by the co inform has been the communist s Thorn Iest Cross. In the final stages leftist leaders have tried to Wrig Gle out from under hedging we Are hot really against it just some aspects of  american Aid recognized to the Northern Industrial worker rehabilitation of Industry and revival of exports Are of prime importance. The Southern farm Folk May not know where Stop Gap u. S. Aid ends and the plan begins but they know it is american bread and Spaghetti they Are  fascism resurgent 4two things have happened which were not foreseen at the Start of the Campaign. One is the sudden spurt of Giuseppe Sara Gat s and Ivan Matteo Lombardo s in dependent anti communist socialist Unity party. The other is the resurgence of fascism. In the North Grandfather father and son have often been socialist. They Are deeply conscious of socialism s International character. They can follow and will change their vote because of Subtle differences of marxian interpretation and socialist attitudes abroad. British French dutch belgian and scandinavian socialist condemnation of alliances with communism and Western socialist sup port of the Marshall plan influence these people to open support of anti communist socialists or secret votes against the front. The agrarian South knows Little about Marx but even there not ably in Eastern Sicily socialist Unity is making Progress. How Ever the italian social move ment which claims to have salvaged the Good of fascism will be the Southern electoral sur prise. 5by and Large the abuse the Here Are highlights in italian elections by associated press Here Are the highlights in Italy s National elections Tomor Row about 90 percent of the a. Tion s 29,000,000 registered voters1 Are expected to go to the polls to pick 400 men for the Senate and 574 for the chamber of deputies. The country is divided into 31 election districts. The largest Milan will return 36 deputies while the smallest will have one Deputy each. Voting is under the proportional representation system. Decisive results Are not expected before the Middle of the week. Actual voting will take place most of the Day sunday and will resume on monday until noon. The Senate votes will be counted first starting immediately after the close of the polls monday. No Clear trend is Likely to appear in the More important. Deputies vote until wednesday. Left has Flung at Uncle Sam has not done very much damage in italian eyes. U. S. Preferred o Brien joined 7,000 unemployed marching in Milan. Most were communists but they asked How big is new York does every american really have a car How much does a worker make do unemployed there March like this what is the subway like does everyone eat Well they were communists who wanted an Italy just like America not Russia. Down South everybody has Kin in America. Practically everybody wants to go to America. I Joe is tenderly remembered. That is Why the left has recently softened its anti american Campaign it has backfired 6the Catholic Church through its priests and the Lay Catholic action is going All out to defeat communism. The size of the vote is the single biggest  very bad weather or leftist intimidation keeps Mil Lions at Home the left will be helped. Experts say virtually every vote above 70 per cent will go to anti communist parties. In the 1946 plebiscite on the monarchy 89.1 per cent voted. The Issue this time is bigger and More vital. Some believe More than 90 per cent will ballot. Forget War crimes Pope s letter asks Berlin april 16 a Pope Pius Xii in a letter to German Catholic leaders made Public yesterday declared the world should forgive and forget Germany s War crimes and help in this country s reconstruction. The Pope also deplored the for Cible expulsion of 12,000,000 Ger mans from the former Reich Eastern territories and observed that we Are afraid history s judg ment on this unparalleled measure will be a harsh  the Pope said he was aware of the crimes committed by the nazis in Poland and Russia during the War but maintained these  justify the postwar expulsion of German refugees from the East. Allied shows keep Busy bad nauheim april 16 Spe Cial Allied shows continue to fur Nish a major part of night club Bers entertainment. During the week ending april 11, 13 Allied shows gave 94 performances to a estimated audience of 25,380, Accord ing to Neucom special services. I shot by russian returns to us. Fat. John Grunden of Portland ore., who was shot and wounded by at russian sentry in Vienna a month ago is made comfortable by capt. Margaret fallen army nurse after being admitted to the base Hospital at Westover Field mass., upon arrival in the u. S. Grunden arrived on the flight from Germany on his 19th birthday. Doctors will decide on amputation of his . Acme writer cruises soviet sector finds no tank concentrations by Kenneth Ames Berlin april 16 up for. More than five hours yesterday i drove about the russian sector of Berlin and parts of the russian zone from which reports had been received of tank movements and concentrations. In five hours i counted six tanks three of them rust red the Black German Cross still showing through after years of lying in the Woods and rotting away. The other three were red army medium tanks which being driven through the Stuttgart reports 46.7% drop in vehicle accidents Stuttgart april 16 is the Stuttgart military Post achieved a decided decrease in accidents in March As a result of the safety Campaign it was announced Here. Officials in charge of the drive revealed that the vehicle Accident total for March was 19 against a february total of 35, a reduction of 46.7 per cent. The Accident frequency rate per 100,000 Miles driven dropped from 2.99 in february to1.38 in March. Total number of Miles driven during the a month was 1,380,000. During the Campaign safety pos ters were also distributed to the German police schools and other agencies. Twelve German news papers in Wurttemberge Baden received safety slogans and material which were also used by radio Stuttgart. The Success of this Campaign hailed to the formulation of plans for continuing cooperation betwee Post safety officials and of gab. Strictly and lib show in Wurzburg today bad nauheim april 16 Spe Cial the Neucom special services Soldier show strictly and lib will give its 200th performance Tomor Row at the Wurzburg Carnegie Hall first three graders club. This show which has Ben touring the dec since june features a cast of 13. Ufa time to be advanced Vienna april 16 special All Ufa clocks should be advanced one hour at 2 . Sunday. Austria will also change officially to sum Mer time at the same hour. Well spaced intervals undertaking training were Woods at presumably Maneu vers. During the afternoon i covered most of the isolated Sandy country surrounding Pueggel Lake 20 Miles Southeast of Berlin where Large forces of the new Stalin tanks were rumoured to be massing. During the whole time we met perhaps 20 russian soldiers including the Crews of the three tanks. Apart from that there were no obvious signs of any increasing military activity. Nine fined $5,600 for cig Aret Deal Bremen april 16 is nine of 10 seamen on the is James f. Harrell were fined a total of $5,600 in a military government summary court Here today. For attempting to smuggle nearly 2,000 Cartons of Cigar ets into Germany. Those convicted were Thomas h. Wood chief Engineer �1,000 John Weiss Purser �1,000 Carl Johnson 1st assistant Engineer s750 Bruce Smith 2nd assistant Engineer $750 Alex Kostyj Tyjana 3rd mate $750 l. Arnold boats Wain $750 Francis Culpepper fireman �250 Theodore Moreno radio operator $250, and Richard Mckendree Able Seaman �100. The contraband Cigar ets were discovered in a search of the ship. The Purser it was Learned Pur chased the Cigar ets in Panama Enro Ute to Bremen. Pender Heads zone Union Stuttgart april 16 is or. Hermann Pender director of the Biz onal economics Council was elected president of the u. S. Zone artist and theater Union Here Las night. Neucom lists new titles for staff agencies Frankfurt april 16 All general staff and special agencies of Neucom Headquarters 1 will be designated henceforth a divisions with the exception Olio a Headquarters commandant it Wal announced yesterday. The new designations Are a part of a minor reorganization of Neucom Headquarters entailing the consolidation and unification of titles and duties of staff officers and the Standard eche Loning of the i subdivisions of Neucom stall agencies. Authority concentrated the change puts into effect i concentration of authority in the higher command Levels of the new staff divisions officials said. Then will no longer be a Deputy director or Deputy chief and an executive officer in any one division Dunlea he head of the division maintains a separate office elsewhere. Trie first subdivision of each staff Agency will be known As i Branch and the Branch subdivisions will be designated As sections. There will be no subdivisions tithe sections. Reasons for the reorganization Are to prevent Over organization of staff divisions thereby economizing to personnel to achieve uniformity in titles and responsibilities of staff officers i establish a uniform efficiency re port system on Neucom staff officers and to establish Standard terminology and organization to Neucom staff divisions official said Mark holdings to be freed London april 16 a Mart holdings of United nations Aad Neutral countries in the British and american zones of Germany Are to be released for the reconstruct Unwor replacement of investments a Germany lost to owners since 1933, the foreign office announced Las night. Up to now the use of Mark bal ances has been limited to Norma business transactions in Germany and investment replacement has been forbidden. The release of reichsmark hold Ings for the replacement of invest ments will allow United nations and Neutral enterprises1 to assist lathe reconstruction of German econ omy and will be permitted Only if the owners of concerns affected Are Able to undertake essential recce Striction and rehabilitation tin foreign office said. German radioman to study in . Berlin april is up the first six German broadcasters to travel abroad since the War s end will leave Frankfurt tomorrow foia six month tour of the u. S. And England it was announced yester Day. The six germans will have to months of special research a Columbia University together,1 with practical work of the Rada staffs of some of the local station. This will be followed by a two month tour of the u. S. And Canada a final two weeks seminar in new York and six weeks at the bbl staff College in London. The trip is being underwritten by the Rockefeller foundation. To rebuild Streicher Home Nurnberg april 16 a the former mansion of jew baited Julius Stretcher hanged for Crim to against humanity la to be rebuffs by he German american Yount club in Nurnberg. The Manado was damaged by air raids