A TRUE ACCOUNT.

Waikato Times, Issue 12124, 7 November 1911, Page 4

A TRUE ACCOUNT.

REUTER'S STORY. ITALIANS IN A BAD WAY. (Received Nov. 6, 9.35 p.m.) MALTA, Nov. 6. Reuter's Tripoli correspondent is able to give an unbiassed report. He states that 1 if the correspondents .at Tripoli had stated facts they would immediately have been expelled. The Turks engaged on the 23rd and 26th, and not more than two thousand losses have yet been \ inflicted, but there are at least a thousand. The Italian line was broken on the 26th in two places by less than two hundred Arabs, who rushed jthe eighty-fourth regiment at dawn and gained cover in the oasis. A hundred dismounted Italian cavalry saved the situation tby a charge, killing the majority o! the Arabs. Thirty Arabs, however, held the position for three days, until they wore .blown up by mines. General Caneva was so alarmed that he abandoned the outer works, including the Turkish Fort. The army worked feverishly to render the inner position impreg-naibla and entrenchments were (barricaded with barbed wires. The Turks and Arabs are now holding the oasis, where there is ample food. Every orchard garden affords natural defences, and the position is ideal as far as the Italian line. The Turks advanced and the artillery dropped shell into the Caneva headquarters. The Italians are driven to a point whence they cannot retire, except to sea.

The troops 'have passed from the greatest ela/Moo ta deep (depression. There are sandstorms daily and soaking rains at nightThere are many oases of cholera amongst the troops.