The Wilmington Morning Star

Italian
Po
By
Burkett u. Dixon:
WITH THE AEF IN ITALY,
June 20-(Delayed)-- (P) -This
is what you might call the off
year for elections in Italy but
there is a certain little town
some distance north of Rome
which had a bit of difficulty
over selection of its city ad-
ministration just the same.
The other day when Ameri-
can troops moved into the vil-
lage after a stiff scrap a man
dressed in the uniform of an
Italian army lieutenant came
up to the commander of the
outfit which captured the town.
With him were about 20 uni-
formed Italians all heavily
armed.
"We've been helping clean
the place out for you,"
said
the lieutenant and to prove
his point promptly turned over
eight or nine German prison-
ers.
About that time a captain
in the Allied military govern-
ment showed up on the scene,
was told what had happened
and turned to the Italian lieu-
tenant.
"I'm appointing you tempor-
ary mayor of the town," he
said.
"These
men
will
be
your police force," indicating
his band of armed Italians. He
told the
lieutenant
to
take
complete control of the town
to see that there was no loot-
ing, and generally establish
law and order.
The new mayor"
executed
a snappy American military
salute and disappeared with
his "police department." The
AMG captain also departed
shortly afterward.
The old mayor of the town
came out of the place where
he'd been hiding during the
battle and what you might call
campaign complications set in.
Translated roughly into Eng-
lish. what he said while wav-
ing his arms and calling on his
patron saint to preserve his
sanity
was
something
like
this:
"Great
Caesar's ghost! It
is not enough that I am run
out of office where I have
served so long and honorably,
but this hypocrite who suc-
ceeds me and his bunch of
gangsters are lying Fascist
rascals who had been fighting
for the Germans. They have
been shooting at me for three
days. Already they are loot-
ing the town themselves."
The military police officer
who heard his speech couldn't
dare take a chance. He told
his men to round up the Italian
crew, disarm them and send
them back for questioning. Not
trusting the former official
either, he left the mayor's
chair temporarily unoccupied,
which was how the AMG cap-
tain found it when he re-
turned a short time later.
Then he hit the roof, swore
the old mayor was a hypocrite,
the new guys were alright and
concluded by saying that when
he picked the man for mayor,
dammit, he wanted him to stay
mayor.
The MP scratched his head.
Just then a truck roared by,
loaded with prisoners under
guard. It disappeared down
the road.
The MP still was far from
convinced but he quit arguing
and pointed at the vanishing
cloud of dust.
"Well, anyhow, we can't do
anything about it now," he
said. "There goes your whole
blamed city administration."
(P. S.--Both sides still are
demanding a recount, so they
put in a compromise candi-
date.