When the Nazi-Fascist military machine cracks up, the armed forced of the United Nations, among which those of Britain and America will have the last word, will not be able to occupy the whole Italian peninsula at one stroke. Therefore, a crisis will be unavoidable in large sections of the country between the moment of military breakdown and the time when the armed forces of the Atlantic Powers will have firmly established their control over the whole peninsula.

During that period of crisis, the men who have run the machine of Fascist administration on -- a machine shattered by defeat but not yet demolished -- will find themselves face to face with the men of the underground anti-Fascist groups.

Between Two Flags

These underground groups fall under two headings: believers in democratic institutions and Communists.

To be sure, the military and civil delegates of the Atlantic Powers will not go to Italy with the purpose of setting up a Soviet Republic there. As long as they are there, they will no doubt, prevent the Communists from carrying out coups de main against the other political groups.

But besides making Communist coups de main impossible, what should the occupying authorities do? What are to be the aims of the Atlantic Powers, not only in Italy, but in all countries west of Russia.

Pro-Fascist?

Do the British Foreign Office and the American State Department intend to bolster up their quasi-Fascist or out-and-out Fascist regimes when the Nazi-Fascist, military machine has collapsed, or do they intend to help democratic groups get the upper hand as for as possible?

The Author

Gaetano Salvemini, student of Italian literature and history, and one of the foremost Italian antifascists in the country today, was born in Italy and received his education there.

When the Mussolini regime came into power in 1926, Salvemini left the country and came to the United States. Here, he has taken an active stand against Mussolini and Italy, frequently contributing articles to such magazines as The Nation and the New Republic, expounding his views.

Is the blood of American youth to be shed for the ideals of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Wilson or for those of the British Tories, the American steel tycoon, Mr. Myron Taylor, and the Fascisl bishops of Detroit and Brooklyn?

If the British Foreign Office and the American State Department adopt the latter ideals, the British and American forces of occupation in Italy, while preventing Communist coups do main, will join hands with the Fascists against the democratic groups

Fascism a la U. S.

They will help the Fascists to remain in control of the press, the associations, the assembles, the trade unions and local and central government. Italian democrats who come to the fore from the underground will have to swallow a more or less disagreed by product of the Fascist dictatorship and it they do not do the swallowing with suffices good grace they will go to jail waving large flags emblazoned with President Roosevelt's famous "four freedoms everywhere in the world."