May 18, 1957
CHURCHILL-MUSSOLINI: Milan (Times-Kathimerini) – During the trial in Padua regarding the fate of the «Dongo gold» (the treasure that Mussolini was carrying at the time of his capture and execution by partisans in April 1945), witness Lorenzo Bianci, who had been the regional partisan leader, withdrew his earlier statement that he had supposedly seen correspondence between Sir Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini, of which mention had frequently been made throughout the trial. Last Tuesday he said that for a few minutes he had held in his hands a box Mussolini had been holding when he was arrested, but that it was not true that he had seen written on the box «Churchill-Mussolini correspondence.» Another witness, who had guarded the box for a year, said among other things that it contained press clippings related to war crimes, which appears to confirm that Mussolini planned to ask for political asylum in Switzerland. (Ed. note: The legendary «Churchill-Mussolini correspondence» was supposed to include letters that would have benefited Mussolini’s position in the event of an international war crimes tribunal.
