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Italy Wracked by Riots Over King's Ouster

Police Battle Mobs in Naples; Peasants Demand Secession

By The Associated Press
June 8, 1946

Rome, June 7 -- Violent royalist demonstrations flared in Naples and two other Italian cities today, with 4 killed and 35 wounded in street fighting between police forces and monarchists protesting the overthrow of King Umberto and the House of Savoy.

Three of the dead and 26 of the wounded were counted in day-long fighting in Naples, where mobs stormed a police barracks and radio station but were beaten off by rifle fire from small scooter tanks. Demonstrations also took place in Pisa and Rome.

Demonstrators hurled bombs and demanded that strongly monarchist southern Italy secede and establish a separate country. Some of the attacks were directed against the Catholic Church, which the rioters charged helped the overthrow of the monarchy by its ambiguous attitude.

Minister of the Interior Giuseppe Romita ordered the Naples police to use an iron hand in quelling the disturbances.

It was reported that strongly monarchist peasants in the country surrounding Naples were prepared to march into Naples and take over the city. State police and heavily armed troops were rushed to guard all entrances into the city.

Demonstrators, including many women, forced householders to display the Italian flag with the coat of arms of the House of Savoy which already has been banned throughout Italy.

It was announced officially here that the new flag of the Italian republic will be red, white and green without the savoy coat of arms.

The newspaper Tempo reported that a priest was assaulted in Naples near the Duomo, the cathedral of San Gennaro, and forced to take castor oil. Attacks against priests and nuns were reported in other sections of the city. A government spokesman announced that the ceremony in which Umberto will hand over state powers to Premier Alcide de Gaspeti has been postponed from tomorrow to next week and there were fears that this delay would give rise to even more violent riots.

Reliable royalist sources said, however, that Umberto may fly to Portugal Saturday anyway in order to contribute the pacification of the nation.

Contributing to this belief, Pope Pius XII tonight granted a 35-minute farewell audience to Umberto. His family left Naples yesterday aboard an Italian cruiser.