THREAT TO FAENZA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25053, 17 November 1944, Page 5

THREAT TO FAENZA

TRIPLE ALLIED ADVANCE RAIN AND SNOW IN ITALY (Reed. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 16 Faenza, the next Italian town ahead of the Allied advance, is threatened from three directions—by Polish troops from the south, bv British troops from the east and by tndian troops of the Fifth Army who have won Monte San Bartolo in the Apennine foothills and opened a rear approach, to the town's defences. British troops of the Eighth Army, who crossed the Montone River, west of Forli, are six miles froin Faenza, says Reuter's correspondent in Rome. The Poles, after the capture of the village of San Antonio, are eight miles due south of Faenza. There is rain along the whole Italian front and snow has thickened its winter blanket on the high ground south of Bologna. THE HAPSBURG CAUSE BRITAIN'S ATTITUDE LONDON, Nov. 16 The recent arrival of the Archduke Otto of Austria in Portugal from the United States at a time when the Russians are liberating from German rule his late father's Hungarian dominions prompted a question in the House of Commons about the British attitude toward his pretensions. The Minister of State, Mr Richard Law, replied that the Archduke's arrival in no way implied political support from the British Government for the Hamburg cause in Central Europe. The policy toward Austria remained as set out in the declaration issued by the Moscow conference on November 1. 1.943. In the Moscow Declaration drawn up by the Allied Foreign Ministers in Moscow last November it was stated: "The British, Soviet and United States Governments have agreed that Austria, the first nation to fall to Nazi aggression, shall be liberated from German domination." It was further declared that it was the Allies' wish to establish a free and independent Austria, and to open the way for her political nomic security. The internal structure of her Government was to_ be left to the decision of the Austrian people themselves. BRITISH ACHIEVEMENT HIGH PRODUCTION LEVEL (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 15 The Minister of Production, Mr Oliver Lyttelton, said that production last year reached the highest point in Britain's history, and was achieved on 40 per cent of the volume of the principal pre-war imports. Mr Lyttelton attributed this to Britain's policy of "doing without." The policy had released a. great volume of manpower for vital war work. Clothes rationing, for instance, meant the release of about 500,000 workers. The printing trade had lost no less than 55 per cent of its operatives in the concentration of industry. The saving in manpower from this concentration had been 250,000. Saving in these ways meant a large saving in shipping and foreign exchange. The tonnage saved by the restriction on paper was more than equal to the total tonnage of military supplies of all kinds, other than petrol, imported ifito Britain during the whole war for use either by the British, the