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ELLIOTT ELLIOTT
ELLIOTT ELLIOTT OPTICIANS rcIWILLYAR,..
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OPTICIANS
John fllioil man
Piccadilly Arcade Perth Tel. 81988
OL Ex-Maris!.
Bros:
Sludevi
Tat. 87988 NO. 3,142.
PRICE THREEPENCE.
PERTH, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1944.
SEVENTY-FIRST YEAR.
Before the Fall of Rome . . . Pope Fed 40,000 Daily
A. M. G. 0.T. Praises Vatican Relief System expected that conferences would
be
from which the Allied
officials
can
with Vatican authorities to enlist start their work. They soon discovered that this all-important contact was How Bishops and Priests of Southern held their aid in this study. The co-operation of the Bishops and to be found in the person of the Parish Priest and, in See cities, the Bishop. of Sicily and Southern Italy has greaty speeded the efforts of the Already, the desperate people would Italy Co-operated With Allies . . . Priests the have gathered around him, beseeching
When the Fascists Fled the People Turned to the Clergy Pi aise for the Vatican's facilities for the feeding of Rome's 2,000,000 people was expressed at the press conference held by General Edgar Hume, U.S.A., senior civil affairs officer of the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (A.M.G.O.T.), after the occupation of Rome. General Hume announced that the Allied Military Government was making prime use of the charity established as a personal responsibility by His General Holiness Pope Pius XII. Hume, according to Burke Walsh, correspondent representing the U.S.A. Catholic Press with the forces, told correspondents that the Vatican had been feeding 40,000 persons each day and that the A.M.G. was channelling food through this established agency to help the needy population. The Allies, General Hume said, would contribute meat and vegetables to the diet already made available through the Vatican facilities to double the nutritional value of the food supplied. The extensive Vatican charity came as a surprise to the large number of correspondents present, after it had been a boon to the people of Rome for all of eight months. This Vatican effort provided thoroughly established and smoothly working machinery through which the Allied authorities could get the needed food to the Roman populace. The Holy Father personally assumed the responsibility of making food available for this great undertaking, operated through soup kitchens established in conjunction with the four great Basilicas and other stations conducted through the Circle of St. Peter, with the establishments, Nuns staffing which has not only carried on for eight solid months but has steadily increased its efficiency and the numbers served through all that time. General Hume told the reporters that the arrangements the Allied Military Government has been able to make with the Vatican "have been most excellent" and he paid tribute to the advice that has been available from the Right Rev. Mgr. Walter S.
For Value and Service
Carroll, American Priest of the diocese of Pittsburgh, who is attached to the Papal Secretariat of State. Mgr. Carroll, who has recently been in South Italy carrying out duties of his office of Vicar -Delegate to the American troops in the Italian theatre of war, is now at the Vatican, where he has resumed his duties with the Secretariat and is continuing those connnected with the American Military Ordinariate. Vatican City continues to enjoy an adequate water supply, whereas much This is ex of Rome itself does not. plained by the fact that Vatican City gets its water supply from one of several aqueducts coming into Rome and its flow has not been impaired. Other parts of Rome are mainly dependent for their water from works at Tivoli, which are still under German control Because of the many hills, water must be supplied to Rome under exreason treme pressure. For this water has not been available for the higher points of the city, but is at hand for the lower-lying sections, where the poorer people live. Allied authorities re-estabished service on all telephones which the Germans had previously appropriated, and in a few days added to these facilities as far as equipment permitTelephone service was cut by ted. the Germans before they evacuated -
Rome. The health of the city of Rome had been good, General Hume declared. He said there have been no epidemic outbreaks and no malaria. He made known- that there was a sharp increase in tubercular cases during the German occupation, and that deaths increased slightly and birth remained about the same. The Allies, General Hume said, plan to make extra food allowances available to persons engaged in heavy work and to expectant and nursing A study is being made as mothers. rapidly as possible, the General said, to determine to what extent monuments, fine art and archives have disappeared or have been damaged during the German occupation and it is
Allied 'Military Government and Allied Control Commission to bring order out of the chaos of war and has undoubtedly saved their people much hardship and needless suffering. Allied Military Government officers the are in constant contact with Church through provisional chiefs in particular communities. A.M.G., in turn, has undertaken to do its best to help meet the many difficulties the Church has had to face due to the war. High officers of A.M.G. had echoed the declaration that it would be hard to see how co-operation could have been
better. Collaboration between the Church and the Allied authorities has been strictly limited to- the fields of public It has had no welfare and charity. political or military aspects whatever. A.M.G. and A.C.C. officials presently working in Southern Italy are veterans of the first Allied efforts in this direction put forth in Sicily. They found early the value of the co-operation of the Catholic Church. They have enjoyed it and welcomed it ever since. A.M.G. officials are among the first to enter a city or town after the Germans have been driven ouf. In each
instance, they are faced with a new, yet old, story and with almost heartbreaking problems which have to be overcome immediately. They find a city and population which, already prostrated by gruelling warfare, have had to bear the added burden of Nazi Public utilities are at a occupation. standstill and probably have been disrupted; health conditions are poor; food has almost disappeared. Civic officials, being Fascists, have fled headlong before the advancing Allies, There must be some immediate contact with the people-some point
him to tell them what to do. In Italy, as in all Catholic countries, the priest and his parish church remain the focal point of community life. Thus the Allied authorities have found the Bishop or Priest to be the most important figure in any town or city and frejuently the only person who could command the respect of the populace. And so it has come about that it has now become the fixed -practice with them and their subordinates to seek out the Bishop or the Parish To him Priest in each new locality. the Allied officials explain their desire to re-establish order and to mitigate, as far as possible, the sufferings being endured. As one official said: "We have one newspaper with which to reach the people. We have a radio station, too. But the people we want to reach do not have receiving sets with which to hear us. It is the announcements of the Priests from the church pulpits that get the best results." Also, the Bishops and Priests act as intermediaries between their people and the Allied authorities, explaining to A.M.G. their urgent wants and desires. This is of considerable importance because, through this process of "screening," Allied authorities are spared the necessity of studying problems that are of little consequence. This has helped to a direct and expeditious solution of many problems having to do with food, sanitation, public safety and social welfare. Showing through all this is a fine tribute to the Catholic clergy of Italy. They have stayed with their people through every adversity, and they have held their faith, their trust, and their respect.
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