The Ensign TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1917. ITALY AND THE WAD.

Mataura Ensign, 24 April 1917, Page 4

The Ensign TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1917. ITALY AND THE WAD.

The Austro-Italian front has not loomed very large in the war news of lute. At imp time it was expected that Marshal von Hindenhnrg intended to place large forces in opposition to the Italians at the commencement of operations this European spring, but the opposition he is meeting on 1 the western front lias apparently forced him to rearrange his plans. Italy is said to be better prepared this season than she had been previously, and had the German Commander-in-Chief decided to at tempt to crush the Italian armies he would have mot his match. The best indication of what Italy is likely to accomplish in tlie near future is afforded in what she has accomplished to date. At a cursory review it may seem that hot achievements are limited. When she entered the war two years ago the task facing her was to open a gateway through the strong frontier on the north and north-east which separates her from her unredeemed provinces, the frontier has not yet been pierced, and on the map the progress made by the Italian armies may seem insignificant in comparison with the formidable task by which they are still confronted. Nevertheless it is impossible to look into the facts without realising that Italy lias a record of military achievement behind her which, though established in very different circumstances compares not unfavorably with that, of her principal Allies. Italy had to shape her plans after the commencement of hostilities largely upon experience gained from day to day. “We had to figld the Austrians,” an Italian journaliswrote, “but, above all. to overcome the almost insuperable difficulties of the ground; steep mountains from 8000 to 12,000 feet high, covered with thick woods, snow and glaciers; bare rocky walls like the dreadful gates of the Dolomites and tlie rugged, waterless, inhospitable Carso, with its deep craterlike depressions, its sharp stones, and dark brown peaty earth.” Handicapped as she was at, tlie outset, Italy, like Britain, lias created a new army—an army which has proved, itself able to compote victoriously with the Austrians, in spite of the enemy’s pronounced advantages of strategic posi-

ticm find warlike experience. In tho winter of 1915*1(5 Italy reorganised her forces, and the whole nation joined m tne work of producing the munitions and other requirements of the army. V\ fiat her armies as a result were enabled to accomplish is succinctly set forth in an official statement published some months ago. “in the spring we sustained, in the Trentino, the powerful long-prepared Austrian offensive which the enemy, with insolent ettronteiy, styled a punitive- expedition against mir country. Hut, after the first successes, which were due to the preponderance of material means collected, above all in artillery, the proposed invasion was quickly , stopped and the enemv was counter-attacked and forced to retire in haste into the mountains, leaving on the Alpine slopes the flower of his army and paying bitterly the price for his fallacious enterprise not only here but also on the plains of Galicia. In the early days of August last the Italians commenced an offensive which resulted in the capture of Gorizia, and the enemy was forced out of his trenches with great loss. Between the beginning of August and December, when winter imposed a halt on operations, the Italians captured 42,00U prisoners, 60 guns, 260 machine guns, and an immense quantity of material. Tlie conquest of Glorizia and of the Carso defences represents unquestionably one of the greatest achievements of the war. The Italians have demonstrated not less conclusively than their Allies in the western theatre their ability to dislodge the enemy from his strongest available positions. The Italians are said to be waiting with every confidence for this season’s campaign. An indication of the scale on which Italy is developing her resources for war is given in the fact that, in coping with the problem of communications and transport the troops have built nearly four thousand miles of roads and three hundred miles of Dccauville light railways. The upkeep of roads alone requires the daily employment of 20,000 men. It has long been the desire of the Allies that all the battle fronts should be under one command, but this has proved impossible so far .as the eastern war zone is concerned. It has been effected so far as the western and Italian fronts are concerned. Lord Milner made this clear in February when he visited Petrograd. He then said that “the idea embodied in the phrase ‘One front’ was one that had already been attained in respect of the high command of the British, French and Italian forces.” From every point of view, equally on account of the stage she has reached in military preparations and organisation and on account of the unity in which she is working with her Allies, Italy is now well placed to build upon the past achievements which have boon described by as high an authority as General Castelnau as conspicuous landmarks on the Allied road to victory.