THE BLOW AT ITALY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 99, 19 January 1918, Page 2

THE BLOW AT ITALY

— : —■-—* — MENACE TO THE ALLIES' COMMUNICATIONS. There is a naval aspect of the recent Italian crisis which is itself of the utmost gravity, but has not yet receved.due recognition," writes the "naval correspondent of the London "Daily News. Next to the eea, the principal line of Germany's ambition is in the Near and Middle East, but hitherto the Turks have completely failed her, mainly because of tne relative security ot our traffic through the Meditarranean and all its consequence. Sir Eric Geddes made it fairly apparent in his speech recently that the Mediterranean is the least satisfactory of all the seas from the point of view of our work against the "U-boat, and before Mackensen's offensive began the Berlin authorities were iesuing boastful communiques relative to the "heavy blows" that were being struck "with conspicuous success" against Italy's maritime communications. Our own authorities are silent on the point, but it would 'seem that Hindenburg—-an undoubted adept in the avt of amphibious strategy—tried to put up a sort of Üboat barrage with the object of preventing the arrival of those supplies and munitions from oversea upon which Italy is so notably dependent. Our most effectivo hold oil the U-boat in the Mediterranean is provided by the barrier we are able to maintain across the Straits of Otranto, and the one thing which enables us to maintain this barrier is the presence of secure and well-equipped bases on the Italian coast. Were these 110 longer at our disposal—as in tho case of a German overrunning of Italy—we should have 110 nearer base than Malta; and that is 350 miles away. Had the Germans been permitted to succeed in their designs against Italy, nothing • could have prevented them from overrunning the Mediterranean with submarines, and a most deadly blow would have been • struck at 0110 of the most utal of the Allies' lines of sea communication. One has only to consider tho position, and the system of supply, of our armies in Salonika, Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, to realise the position.