THE ATTACK ON ITALY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16696, 14 November 1917, Page 6

THE ATTACK ON ITALY.

There is a thinly-veiled warning in the news from Italy that the AustroGerman invasion will not be halted at the line of the Piave. While he retained the power of striking at the vulnerable Isonzo front, General Cadorna was able to defeat any effort on the part of the Austrians to debouch from the ominous Trentino salient into the plain of Lombardy. Such an attempt was made last year, but it failed when the Italians had been driven back to within 18 miles of the trunk railway. The line in the Trentino was restored, the . Austrians were gravely weakened, and the full force of the counter-stroke was revealed in the capture of Gorz. The present situation is gravely different. There is no. Brussiloff to launch an offensive in Galicia, and the descent from the Trentino does not merely threaten the communications of a firmly-established • army with mobile reserves, but is a direct attack upon the flank of an army whose strength is fully exerted in the effort to stem the invasion of its native soil. In attempting to cut off the retreat from the upper waters of the Piave, the Austrians have developed an attack along the Val Sugana and across the Asiago Plateau, and are thus utilising again the roads and railways by which the offensive of last year was made possible. In this region, the defensive positions are good, and the Italians, though driven back practically to the line on which they held their ground in June, 1916, are successfully withstanding the enemy pressure. The situation was saved last year by transferring to the point of danger an army of 500,000 men already concentrated for the offensive against Gorz. It is unlikely that the Italian forces could now furnish such reserves without perilous delay, but British and French troops have been hurried to the Italian plains to supply the deficiency The vigour with which the attack upon the Italian rear has been pressed may make further retreat inevitable, but the stubborn resistance along the whole front is affording valuable time for the transport of reinforcements and the organisation of the Allied counterstroke.