ITALY AND AUSTRIA

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 42, 25 June 1913, Page 4

ITALY AND AUSTRIA

A writer in the Christchurch "Press": reminds ns that on June 20th, 1866,' Italy declared war against Austria. The cause of trouble was the presence of Austrians in Yenetia, which the Italians regarded as a national humiliation. Accordingly, Italy, too weak to expel them unaided, sought and found an ally in Prussia. Napoleon 111., who desired as much as anyone to see the Austrians expelled, was sympathetic towards the entente, and under his auspices a Prusso-Italian alliance for defensive and offensive purposes was concluded on April Bth. On the 16th of June the Prussians began hostilities, and four days later war was formally declared by Italy. The struggle was a brief one, lasting for barely four months. The Austrians, with an army of 95,000 men under the Archduke Albert, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italian forces at Custozza on the 24th, but on July 3rd they were in turn completely defeated by the Prussians at Koniggratz. On the 18th of that month the Italian ironclad fleet attacked, unsuccessfully, the Dalmatian island of Lissa, and two days later was completely defeated by the Austrian Squadron, consisting of wooden ships, under Admiral Tegethoff. Negotiations which were then entered into resulted in the cession of Venetia, and the conclusion of peace, on October 3rd at Vienna.