ITALY'S FOREKNOWLEDGE OF ENEMY ATTACK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 149, 24 June 1918, Page 5

ITALY'S FOREKNOWLEDGE OF ENEMY ATTACK.

TACIT ADMISSION OF FAILURE BY GERMAN PRESS.

(Received 11.35 a.m.) f " ' * ' '**•" I-ONDOX, June 23. Many Italian experts consider that the main Austrian offensive' was the attack on the Piave, and declare that the Intelligence Bureau had early and precise information to that effect, enabling the timely concentration of Italian reserves.

Austrian news received through Switzerland attributes the defeat of the offensive to Czecho-Slav treachery. A Viennese newspaper declares that traitors supplied the Italians with a plan of the offensive. Official dispatches say that the Gorman newspapers tacitly admit the failure of the Austrian offensive, but declare that it was necessary to prevent Italian troops going to France to reinforce the west front.

The "'Daily Chronicle's" Milan correspondent states that the Premier, Signor Orlando, in an interview, said that the British commander on the Asiago Plateau had superintended personally the burial of over live thousand Austrians in that sector. The enemy losses at Monte Grappa, Mmitello, and especially along the Piave were terrific. Nevertheless the Austrians' spirits were remarkably high, and their officers were now marching at the head of the troops instead of following in the rear. One haul of 25UU prisoners included twenty officers.— (A. and X.Z. Cable.) *