TRIPOLI WAR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1380, 5 March 1912, Page 5

TRIPOLI WAR.

ITALY'S CASUALTY LIST.' By Telegraph—Press Association—Oopyriffht Rome, March 3. Since the outbreak of the war in Tripoli 37 Italian officers and 499 men have been killed, and one officer and 323 men are missing. Tho bulk of the latter are believed to be dead.

Ah English war correspondent at Tripoli, writing to a London journal, says: "Statements are made that the enthusiasm of tho troops hns altogether evaporated. To theso I can only opposo a blank denial. It is true that the soldiers were puzzled by tho long inaction, and that now among the married Reservists you will find men who are beginning to wonder when they will return to their families. There are grumblers in all armies, but there are very few here, and I confess myself surprised at the admirable spirit of the men. They have had to be held in leash, and they have sometimes been held too tight. They have always been willing to do more than their officers would allow them to do. I have no intention of. maintaining that the Italian army is a perfect fighting machine, It is very far from being that, and tho expeditionary force is still to some extent, an army in the making. The soldiers are brave' and willing, but they are still on tho raw side, though somo of tho regiments havo hardened into first-class troops, and tho others learn something every day. Some of tho leaders seem to lack confidence in their troops and in themselves, and are afraid of tho defects of their virtues. It .is acutely realised that the disaster of Adowa was largely duo to the national eagerness of temperament, and the authorities are determined that there shall bo no repetition of tho mistakes then made. The determination is wise; but deliberation may bo carried too far. At Ain Zara, for instance, it seemed to the observer as though a greater rapidity of movement on the part of the troops on the right would have smashed the Turks instead of merely routing them."