The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1918. THE ITALIAN FRONT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15531, 19 June 1918, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1918. THE ITALIAN FRONT.

Latest cables indicate that the long l expected Austrian offensive has not pro* duoed the results which the enemy pro pared for and expected. Anticipating the attack, the Allies subjected the Austrian lines to such tremendous artillery fire that they were thrown into confusion, and determined counterattacks have left the enemy more or less demoralised. It is not a little significant, too, that neither Germans, Bulgarians, nor Turks participated in the attack, which certainly does not suggest cohesion amongst the Central Powers. There are internal differences which not even the German Mask can hide, and it is more than probable that the offensive would have keen begun much earlier but for political complications which are reported to have arisen in the Dual Monarchy itself and in its relations with Germany. However that may be, the fact remain? that the Austrian offensive from the Alps to the sea has been sanguinarily held up, the decisiveness of the hold-up suggesting to Marcel Hutin that the Austrians have sustained such a reverberating check that it may bo shortly transformed into a colossal defeat. Time was when the Allies were at a decided disadvantage in that there was little co-ordination between the respective armies of Britain, France, and Italy, while the one strong hand directed the military affairs of the Central Powers. To-day ihe position is altered. Tnero are divided counsels in the camp of the Central Powers—the Kaiser, the Crown Prince, Hindenburg, and Ludendorff each in turn seem to be directing affairs, while the absence of the Germans in the Austrian offensive suggests a broach between the two great Central Powers. On the other hand, the Allies, profiting by past experience, have placed their armies from the North Sea to the Adriatic under the supreme control of Generalissimo Foch. Thus, with the exception of the curve round Switzerland, which interposes a big wedge between the opposing groups of belligerents and prevents them from coming to grips there, the fighting line extends continuously from the coast line of Flanders, through France to Switzerland, beginning again where the Austrian frontier meets that of Italy in the Trentino, marching with it right round the Adriatic, where, owing to the Austro-German invasion, thj enemy’s line has teen advanced close to Venice. Generalissimo Foch has the responsibility of liolding that line against the onsets of the welded armies of the Central European Powers, who are endeavouring to break it at several distinct points before the arrival of millions of fresh troops from the United States places the means of securing a decisive victor| in the hands of the Allies. Never since the world began has such a burden been laid upon one man. The additional responsibility of controlling the dispositions on the Italian front had to he laid upon the shoulders of Foch in order that one co-ordinated plan might be designed for the whole of the Allied front. The testing of that plan by the battering-rams of three simultaneous enemy offensives has begun. To Foch, assisted, of course, by the reports of the general staffs oi each of the Allied armies, the Allies have deputed the temaiy responsible task of strengthening the line where it must le strengthened in order to hold out, and of leaving it elsewhere to the fortitude and fighting power of such troops as are available to hold it, while at the same time a mobile army is kept

in reserve t,o take advantage of such opportunities for dealing counter-strokes as may be presented by the fortune of the battle and the working out of foreordained plans. The Italian armies will be watched with confidence and hope by their Allies in Europe, and by their “00-bellig-erents” in the United States. Apart from their one great failure on the Isonzo River in October last year, the Italian armies have much more than held their own against the Austrians. Their heavy losses in guns during their retreat to the Fiave River have almost certainly been made good, with assistance from Britain and France, during the winter months, when the snow on the mountains enforced a lull in hostilities. Reuter’s correspondent learns from an Italian military source that all past losses of material have been made good, munition factories are working magnificently, troops have been highly trained and reorganised, they are better fed, they have been granted increased pay, insured in case of death, and provision is made for reinstating injured men in civil life. Consequently the spirit of the army is splendid—higher than ever it has been. In the circumstances, therefore, there is justification for taking a hopeful view of the Italian situation, and believing that the Austrians will fail to break the Italian line and roll up the armies. Could the enemy achieve that object, the way would be open for an invasion of Southern Fiance. Such an invasion would enable the enemy to turn Foch’s right flank and carry out the great envelo]}ing movement upon which German military science relies as the only method by which a decisive result can be secured. The safety of the Allied cause, and not merely the safety of Italy alone, is at stake in the great Austrian offensive, and it is reassuring to hear that the French Press are satisfied that it has been a failure.