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last year that has passed it became a battlefield and has undergone grest   
suffering. Italy also recognizes that it must "earn its passage back" and   
that that passage nust be paid in terms of blood, and of toil, and tears.   
Denocratic Italy representing, I believe, the majority of the nation,   
wants to be free and to resume an honorable place among free nations, but   
t wants likewise to know the total cost of its "passage back
 
                                                            
 
 
The six principle anti-fascist parties, notwithstanding their obvious   
differences, formed a union known as the Junta. It held its congress in   
Bari, the end of January 1944. This was accomplished in the face of many   
obstacles, including outright opposition from the King's Government, and   
an indifference that was scarcely less than hostile from the Allied   
Authorities. The order forbidding the congress to be broadcast was   
modified at the last moment, permitting the proceedings of two days to   
have five minutes on the air. A crumb was thrown to the famished   
democrats. Nevertheless, the Congress of Bari was an important occasion;   
and the inaugural speech of Benedetto Croce will go down in history as a   
                       memorable one.                       
 
                                                            
 
 
Croce's indictment of the monarchy is all the more telling because of the   
old philosopher's nostalgic leanings toward monarchy as an institution.   
          The speech can bear reading many times.           
 
                                                            
 
 
In the meantime, the movement of clandestine resistance in enemy occupied   
territory, the Patriot Movement, had gained great headway in Italy. Next   
to the revolutionary forces of Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia, it was   
certainly the most important internal resistance movement in the whole of   
occupied Europe, up until the recent developments in France where, of   
course, the organized resistance movement in the whole of the French   
        Forces of the Interior now assumes priority.        
 
                                                            
 
 
The Patriot Movement in Italy is drawn from all classes, privileged and   
unprivileged. That the unprivileged far outnumber the privileged is   
obvious; God made many poor people in Italy. There are many irresponsible   
elenents among them; there are many swaggerers among them who strut much   
and do little; but, there are many brave men too, who are fighting and   
dying for the liberation of their country and whose achievements confirmed   
Allied recognition, have given valuable aid to the common ca
 
                                                            
 
 
Starting in small groups, their ranks swelled from hundreds to thousands   
and from thousands to tens of thousands, and from tens of thousands to   
hundreds of thousands. It is customary in some quarters to minimize the   
achievements of these men; to look down upon them as a force so   
undisciplined and irresponsible that they constitute more of a menace to   
the future than they do a help to the present. They are drawn from all   
ranks and files, however, Many of them, especially from the north of   
  Italy, are inscribed as members of the Communist party.