On the 30th November 1944, the first issue of Il Risveglio was published in Australia.

The Department of Army were aware of this new publication in Italian and on 29th November 1944 actioned a stop to the process of copies of Il Corriere being sent from India to Australia.

What does this mean?

Firstly, we now know the Italian prisoners of war had had access to the Italian language newspaper Il Corriere.

Secondly, we assume that Italian prisoners of war will now have access to Il Risveglio.

Thirdly, newspapers arriving from India meant that the news is already out of date by the time it is read in Australia. The Italian prisoners of war would now be reading ‘current’ news.

Fourthly, what other newspapers and journals did the Italians have access to? [I will write more on this later.]

It’s official!

An official public confirmation is made in June 1945: farmers can purchase copies of Il Risveglio for their prisoner of war workers and the newspaper is already available in prisoner of war camps (subject of approval from Camp Commandant).

From the Editor

Nei nostri scritti riuniamo un atteggiamento di amicizia verso la popolazione australiana con la fierezza della nostra origine e delle nostre tradizioni storiche e colturali. Laboreremo sempre con le forze amanti della liberta del progresso nella difesa di
questi quattro grandi principi:
Liberta’ di parola
Liberta’ di stampa
Liberta’ di religione
Liberta’ di vita

In our writings we gather an attitude of friendship towards the Australian population with the pride of our origin and our traditions historical and cultural. We will always work with freedom-loving forces of progress in the defense of
these four great principles:
Freedom of word
Freedom of the press
Freedom of religion
Freedom of life