POSITION IN ITALY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 270, 13 November 1943, Page 5

POSITION IN ITALY

Disappointment Expressed In London Press ROME STILI, FAR FROM GRASP Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 12. The present position in Italy is disappointing, to say the least, declares the Daily Mail editorially. "The Allies have not merely slowed down, but they seem to be reaching a situation with which the last war made us all too unhappily familiar —an affair of trench warfare, or sorties, counter-attacks, a little territory painfully won and then slow 'consolidation.' "Meanwhile Home is apparently still far from our grasp, and twothirds of Italy is under German occupation. In these circumstances it is not remarkable that people here and on the other side of the Atlantic are, asking not only could we have done better, but could we be doing better now." NOT IN ROME CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 12. "From the present point of view it will be remarkable if we celebrate Christmas in Rome," says the British United Press correspondent with the Eighth Army. "The Germans are obviously determined to fight 'with their backs to the wall.' The battle for Rome is, firstly, for the maintenance of the enemy's falling prestige and, secondly, for vital time to consolidate his positions within the inner fortress of Europe. The man Army is still very strong, and, despite its losses in Russia, the High Command is able to send reinforcements not only to Italy, but also to the Balkans, where some Allied diversionary move seems to be feared."