From Our Own Correspondent
ROME.
The Osservatore Romano, the semiofficial political and religious paper printed and published in the Vatican City, has recently reached a circulation of two hundred thousand. This figure, though small when compared with certain English newspaper circulations, is comparatively large for Italy, where the biggest circulation of a paper (12 Carriers Della Sera, of Milan) touches only the five hundred thousand mark, and where Sig. Gayda's Giornale dltalia (regarded as the mouthpiece of the Italian Foreign Office) has between three and four hundred thousand.
The Osservatore Romano a few years ago had a circulation of only twentyeight thousand. The man who signs his commentary with the initials "G. G." is one of the causes of Its present boom. He is a Professor at the State University of Rome, Guido Gonella by name. He tries to present facts and comments in a dispassionate, objective way, but everybody agrees that his sympathies are with the Allies.
The " Osservatore Romano" has two editions, the first being ready about four o'clock in the afternoon, but it is only the last edition that appears on the shelves of the kiosks in Rotrte and under the nettle/boys' arms; th.is edition is not ready before seven o'clock in the evening—about an hour after the Italian evening papers have issued their last editions. The sale of the Osservatore Romano throughout Italy Is protected by a clause In the Concordat.