ITALY & THE ENTENTE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 104, 4 May 1915, Page 7

ITALY & THE ENTENTE

AGREEMENT NOT YET REACHED. :•'■ (TIMES AND SYDNEY SON SERTICES.) LONDON, 3rd May. 'A Petrograd message says that the rumour that an agreement between Italy and the Entente Powers has been concluded is undoubtedly premature, but negotiations are progressing. ! Italy has been reminded that- if she poltpones her decision until the Russians descend to the Hungarian plain her support will i be largely deprived of its' value. j AUSTRIA'S PREPARATIONS. "A' most painful impression " was re- j cently created throughout Italy by Ger- j man attempts to foment revolt in the Italian provinces of Tripoli and Cyrenaica. j "Already," Mr. Austin ,Wesfc, Rome correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, wrote on 14th March, "552 rifles and 27,300 sharp-pointed cartridges have j been extracted from a consignment of 82 beer barrels stopped by the Customs authorities at Venice while en route from j Berlin to Tripoli. "Similar cargoes^ on a more extensive stale are said to have just come to light at Genoa, Naples, and .Catania. The gravity of the affair is deepened by the fact that ' the Berlin intriguers deliberately sought to compromise France in the matter, as, with the exception of a few Winchester repeating rifles, all this contraband bears the St. Etienne factory mark, t and was maliciously entrusted to Messrs. Gondrand, the well-known French firm of forwarding agents. "It was one of Messrs. Gondrand's employees who accidentally discovered the trick. A single barrel of a smaller size than the rest, which the senders had evidently reckoned would be singled out for examination, was really full of beer. The j rest contained only ten litres of blackish fluid each, while zinc-encased interiors held six unmounted rifles, together with a supply of cartridges packed in boxes of fifty." "I learn from Trieste," says another correspondent, "that squads of Russian prisoners of war and Galician refugees have been sent to Trentino, where they are working on the defensive fortifica- J tions, in digging trenches along the frontier, and clearing away the snow from the mountain passes. "Heavy guns are being mounted in the passes on specially-erected ■concrete platforms. Masked batteries are being ex-, tensively placed close to the frontier, for the Austrians do not rely on the permanent fortifications, which are well known to the Italians. The Austrian plan is to set up secret defences against invasion, which they consider inevitable. "Meanwhile the Austrian Fleet, which since the Anglo-French naval operations in the Dardanelles has often been cruising in the Adriatic, is now again concentrated at Pola, where an Italia£ attack is feared. Mines are again being promiscuously laid along 'the coasts, where navigation is almost impossible. - Only torpedo-boats are out occasionally on patrol duty, and searchlights sweep the horizon throughout the_ night."