ITALY'S SOLDIER KING.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 205, 1 September 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

ITALY'S SOLDIER KING.

LOVE FOR THE FIRING LINE. TROOPS TREATED AS EQUALS. When Gorizia fell the ™ h } e &*™ mentioned that King Emmanuel, riding Kgside the Duke of entered the Sptured city at the head of hw "Kg Victor Emmanuel has now been at the front with his soldiers for over ayear. He ldft the Qumnal a lew after midnight on 25th .May 1915, when war was declared, and lie has returned to Rome but two or three Ses since that date, and then only on iZortant State or military business. the King is the most familiar fieure, and the man most loved b» S?2B3t, not only because he is King, but because of his personality. It is common information that at home King Victor is a man of famj, living with his children and the Queen only a small part of the immense Royal Palaw. Before the war he lived S like a middle-class Frenchman o Ely Playing with his chi dren tor STny honfs aTa time, loathmg pomp and show, «s-ng his non-polity hours for reading and stud/ or for his hobby of'cXcting.old coins. Whenhe> remved either or ord:nary friends t was in the easy manner of the ho likes their company. In such intercourse hi* custom to refer to his fouV children by the first .names, and not infrequently use the phrase Mj wife was. telling me the other daj NO FEAR OF ENEMY SHELLS At the front the King has shown a new side of his character Here he has developed a loiter the firmg-l:ne that k It oEcsthe admiration of his soldier* andthe*>rture of the commanding; ofhj eers and*in P«tcubir ot his faith ul aide, General Ugo Brnsati, whoi has Ueen the companion of the Kingsmce the latter was Prince of, iNapies. "Should it ever happen that the . Kmg from his quarters without tellineanybody where he was go Jig, t is pretty certein the first pjaoe we snouW look *ould be up near the front lines," said an officer. The fearlessness of the King was noted by a group o Italian Journal sU one day, in the following manner, as " Sated 'by Dr. Giovanni Nice;, a newspaper^ man, who engaged Is a volunteer, officer • in several ot Ttnlv's wars "An action was gomg.on a a^caTt a Spartoft he iVontwhich several of us wanted to see. When we had got within rifle range of the action we were forbidden to go further. As we were halted bv the roadside protesting heatedly that it was our business tf we got killed, the King whizzed Tin E Automobile and went right on mto the firing-zone that was considered too dangerous for us. GIFTS OF TOBACCO. At mess time it is the King's invari able rule to invite whatever group of soldiers or officers he meets to eat wThim. and during the meal he doe not st.and on his rank but speaks w.th them of matters that interest them, asks news of their families and their homes. On the other hand, he is apt to speak of his own family and personal matters in the same easy fashion as t his personal affairs were public propert?; It is hundreds • ? such meetings that go to make the soldier* feel thai their King is one of them Because oi his custom of always ca:ryin* nua.flous boxes of cigars an I cigarettes sum pipe tobacco in his auto v..: i.c ihero is a lot of unsmoked tobacco scattered throughout Italy to-day, tow» that will dry to dust before it is smoked. While the King makes presents of thrs tobacco to the soldiers and under othcers, and insists that they smoke it. they keep it as a souvenir and send it home to be framed and nung up as a family treasure.

NO MILITARY POSE. Although the constitutional head of the army, with right to make war and conclude peace, the King does not pos. ? as a great solder of military genms. He is Italv's first King who has not interfered in military matters and has studied them closely; hut for all tlvs he does not attempt to impose his opinions or h : s will. That the King is able to stick at the front, endure its trying l'-fe and tne physical hardships of mountain work is due to his strong phys : que. As a boy ho was a weakling, but partly because of his own dstcrmination to become strong, and partly because of th e Spartan training given to hm by his tutor, Colonel Osio, he has built up a body that can climb mountains with the professional Alpinists. Colonel Osio was a man of the old school, and when the young Prince was turned over to him he set in to give him .1 terrific training. It was either kill or cure. He had the little Prince up at five o'clock in the monrng, winter and summer, taking baths and .exercises of the most rigorous kind.