The Nome Nugget

Italy's Government Strengthens Police Force

ROME (AP)—The Italian government, plagued by widespread political disorders that have claimed 10 lives in the past week, moved swiftly today to strengthen the national police force and announced it was prepared to "deal energetically with any assault on democracy."

Mario Scelba, minister of the interior, disclosed the strength of the carabinieri was being increased from 65,000 to 75,000 men and said that all security forces were being overhauled and tightened.

Scelba's statement coincided with a new blast against Premier Alcide de Gasperi's Christian Democrat government by Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti, who declared in a speech at Milan that the government was toadying to "foreigners" and was "allied to the neo-fascists."

"All who think to recreate fascism in Italy must take into account the organized force of labor," Togliatti said.

"Naturally," he added, "the Italian situation is linked to the international situation, where there is accentuated the contrast between democratic, progressive social forces and the most reactionary imperialistic groups."

The communist leader accused Scelba of "collusion with bandit groups," the news agency ANSA reported, and asserted that the Christian Democrats were "allied to the enemies of religion, tightly bound in a bundle with Truman, the Masons and Croce."

Benedetto Croce, elderly historian, philosopher and statesman, served in the Badoglio and Bonomi cabinets in 1944.

Italian press dispatches, meanwhile, reported fresh disorders yesterday in several small communities in the vicinity of Rome, Siena and Venice.