ITALY'S FIGHTING SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 2, 27 September 1917, Page 6

ITALY'S FIGHTING SPIRIT

"YICTOBY OR DEATH."

Some interesting extraots from the letters of Italian soldiers to their relatives in Now Zealand, showing the spirit with which the Italian Army is fighting, were read by Mr. J. H. Pagni on Saturday evening during the interval at a. concert in..the' Town Hall Concert Chamber in aid of the Italian Bed Cross, states the Auckland 'Herald. "We have been, fighting for five (lays continuously on Monte Santo, conquering positions and making many prisoners, wrote one soldier to his father. We have climbed the tops of mountains 8000 ft. to 10,000 ft. high, which only the nestling eagle has reached before us. And we have been doing some targeteliooting, very calmly and quietly, the targets beinjf, as you know, the faces of our enemies. We are' asked to tako 6trongly-fortified trenches,. made of cement; but I am under the impression that if they had been made of steel they conld not have resisted the impetus of our men. Wien we see the cap of the Austrians riso up before us the blood boils in our veins. What with our brother the rifle and our sister the bayonet we feel ourselves irresistible. We only remember that if we do not win this war Italy and her Allies will die for ever; but we will win, don't fret!" TO ,_ . "I have been in the Libyan War, but this is another world," wrote another soldier. "Here wo feel ourselves; here it is a question of liberating our brothers, and go on- fighting to preserve those principles of liberty and justice which our forefathers fought so inuch to securo for us." Another Italian soldier, a volunteer, wrote: "Hero I am, dear mother, as a volunteer, fighting at last against the hateful, the barbarous enemy, who years ago took our dear dad away from us. I must revenge him. We must take Trieste. No fear is shown, or felt, of Lady Death. We all wantto be heroes, if possible; we all have our blow to give, and if our dreams could come true our cannons would bore through the mountains. If I die, remember me. If I Jive, I will tell you some glorious tales.'