Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, this morning Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt issued a proclamation addressed to the people of Italy, setting forth that the sole hope for Italy's survival lies in honourable capitulation. The following is the text of the proclamation:

1. At this moment the combined armed forces of the United States, Great Britain and Canada, under the command of General Eisenhower and his deputy, General Alexander, are carrying the war deep into the territory of your country. This is the direct consequence of the shameful leadership to which you have been subjected by Mussolini and his fascist regime.

2. Mussolini carried you into this war as the satellite of a brutal destroyer of peoples and liberties.

3. Mussolini plunged you into a w'ar which he thought Hitler had already won. In spite of Italy's great vulnerability to attack by air and sea, your fascist leaders sent your sons, your ships, your air forces, to distant battlefields to aid Germany in her attempt to conquer England, Russia and the world.

4. This association with the designs of nazi-controlled Germany was unworthy of Italy's ancient traditions of freedom and culture- traditions to which the peoples of America and Great Britain owe so much.

5. Your soldiers have fought not in the interests of Italy but for nazi Germany. They have

The War

fought courageously, but they have been betrayed and abandoned by the Germans on the Russian front and on every battlefield in Africa from El Alemein to Cape Bon.

6. To-day Germany's hope for world conquest have been blasted on all fronts. The skies over Italy are dominated by the vast air armadas of the United States and Great Britain. Italy's sea coasts are threatened by the greatest accumulation of British and allied sea power ever concentrated in the Mediterranean.

7. The forces now opposed to you are pledged to destroy the power of nazi Germany-power which has ruthlessly been used to inflict slavery, destruction and death on all those who refuse to recognize the Germans as the master race.

8. The sole hope for Italy's survival lies in honourable capitulation to the overwhelming power of the military forces of the united nations.

9. If you continue to tolerate the fascist regime which serves the evil power of the nazis, you must suffer the consequences of your own choice. We take no satisfaction in invading Italian soil and bringing the tragic devastation of war home to the Italian people. But we are determined to destroy the false leaders and their doctrines which have brought Italy to her present position.

10. Every moment that you resist the combined forces of the united nations-every drop of blood that you sacrifice-can serve only one purpose; to give the fascist and nazi leaders a little more time to escape from the inevitable consequences of their own crime.

11. All your interests and all your traditions have been betrayed by nazi Germany and your own false and corrupt leaders; it is only by destroying both that a reconstituted Italy can hope to occupy a respected place in the family of European nations.

12. The time has now come for you, Italian people, to consult your own self-respect and your own interests and your own desires for a restoration of national dignity, security and peace. The time has come for you to decide whether Italians shall die for Mussolini and Hitler or live for Italy and for civilization.

Mr. GRAYDON:

Has the Prime Minister any information as to the means by which that message is to be conveyed to the people of Italy?

Mr. MACKENZIE KING; I understand that it was distributed by aircraft, and I have no doubt that it has also been communicated over the radio.

Mr. ILSLEY:

As the House of Commons knows, it was announced some time ago that a consolidated Farmers' Creditors Arrangement Act would be introduced as soon as the war appropriation bill was passed. This is that bill. I think the statement as to the principles upon which the bill is built and founded had better be postponed until the second reading. In the meantime the bill will be circulated.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

Mr. GORDON GRAYDON (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker, I have a question to direct to the Minister of Finance. An Associated Press dispatch from Washington under dateline of July 15 predicts that coffee rationing in the United States will come to an end on or about August 11. Will the minister be good enough to indicate to the house if this will mean any change so far as coffee rationing in Canada is concerned?

Hon. J. L. ILSLEY (Minister of Finance):

Anticipating that this question would be asked, I asked the wartime prices and trade board for information on the subject. The wartime prices and trade board has no official advice of any proposed change in the United States coffee rationing and has only seen the newspaper reference. The situation in Canada regarding coffee rationing is quite different from that in the United States, because in normal times Canadians use approximately equal amounts of tea and coffee, while in the United States only a comparatively small amount of tea is used. It was possible to ration coffee alone in the United States, while in Canada the two had to go together.

Mr. GRAYDON:

There is no tea rationing in the United States?

Mr. ILSLEY:

I do not know about that; it is separate, at any rate. Coffee is dealt with alone in the United States.

Mr. GRAYDON:

I thought the minister was indicating that.

Mr. ILSLEY:

I am not sure about it. The supply position of both tea and coffee is dependent upon shipping; in the case of tea, from India, and in the case of coffee, from

Wartime Information Board

South America. Until the stock position of both commodities is assured and future supplies are reasonably certain, it is not possible to increase the present ration allowances.

Mr. GORDON GRAYDON (Leader of the Opposition):

I should like to direct a question to the Minister of National War Services. I understand that a new censorship directive has been issued, I think yesterday, placing on radio stations the responsibility for keeping off the air any statements that might injure Canada's war effort. I would be glad to have the minister inform the house as to the details of this new directive and to lay a copy of it on the table of the house.

Hon. L. R. LaFLECHE (Minister of National War Services): The leader of the opposition was kind enough to send me an intimation that he would put this question, but unfortunately I got it only just before coming into the house. May I say at this time -I shall go into the question in detail by to-morrow-that on June 28 a new directive was issued by censorship, after the matter had been considered for a number of weeks. The purpose of the new directive was to clarify and simplify the matter of censorship in regard to broadcasting. This is one of the matters mentioned in a motion moved by the hon. member for Peterborough West (Mr. Fraser). Colonel Biggar is now back in town. I spoke to him yesterday and I hope to have some details from him very quickly when I shall be in a position to reply to the hon. member for Peterborough West.