ENEMY ACCEPTS COLLAPSE OF FIRST ATTACK

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

ENEMY ACCEPTS COLLAPSE OF FIRST ATTACK

• ITALY'S PRISONERS NOW TOTAL OVER 12,000.

LONDON, June 23. French critics believe that the collapse of the first phase of the battle in. Italy has already been accepted by the Austrians as final. M. Marcel Rutin states that the Emperor has forbidden a second effort, adding that an offensivs which gave the defenders 11,000 prisoners would not encourage the Austrian-* in their illusions. lie adds tliat public opinion in Vienna, Budapest, and Prague has been greatly impressed by the failures, synchronising with Hit critical food and political difficulties, which victories were intended to avert. (United Service.)

The correspondent of the "Daily" Chronicle" at Italian headquarters says the lighting ou the I'iavt- is most confusing owing to the dense bushes. There are frequent surprises on both sides. An Italian divisional headquarters position was almost surrounded yesterday. The staff left their desks, snatched arms, and fought the enemy detachment until the latter was driven off. Two hamlets on the Lower Piave have changed hands six times. The correspondent of the New York "Times" at Italian headquarters states that Uindenburg and EudendorlT conferred with the Austrian generals on the Italian front. The German leaders gave advice regarding the lines on which the offensive should be continued.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)

Renter's correspondent at Italian headquarters, describing the difficulties of the campaigning, says the whole front is a mass of vegetation, concealing machine-guns, while a maze of canals, dykes, and ditches, with trailing'vines overhead, impede a quick advance. Altogether 12,000 Austrians have been made prisoner since the opening of their offensive.—(Renter.) Mr. Ward Price says the enemy is using the German system of infiltration attacks by constant small streams of assault troops, with specially-trained bombers bayoneters and flame-throwers, snipers, and machine-gunners. The fluctuating fighting produces odd sights, Tie saw naked, wounded men peddling bicycles, the pressure of the enemy compelling the immediate evacuation of patients from dressing stations without clothes. The Hague correspondent of the "Times" says that Germany proposes to send 12 divisions to Italy, 12 Austrian divisions replacing them on the west front.— ("Times.")