Italy

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 3, 4 May 1915, Page 8

Italy

AUSTRIANS PREPARED FOR THE WORST. Times and Sydney Sun Service. (Received S.O a.m.) London, .May 3. Pe'trograd states: Wxdl-inlofmed quarters believe that Italian intervention will occur sooner than expected. Apparently, the Austrians are prepared for the worst, as the military authorities at Trieste have printed thousands of manifestos in the Italian, German, and Serbo-Croations language for distribution on the frontier region's, informing the people that the Italian army is their foe, and that it is ready to occupy the territory which the authorities were compelled to abandon . AGREEMENT WITH ENTENTE. Times and Sydney Sun Service. Petrograd, May 2. A message says the rumour that an agreement between Italy and the Entente has been concluded is undoubtedly premature, but negotiations are progressing. Italy has been reminded that if she postponed her decision until the Russians descend to the Hungarian plain her support will largely be deprived of its value. GERMANS FOMENTING REVOLT IN TRIPOLI. AUSTRIA'S PREPARATIONS. "A most painful impression." was recently created throughout Italy by German attempts to foment revolt in the Italian provinces of; Tripoli and Oyrenaica. "Already." Mr. Austin West, Rome correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle," wrote on March 1-1, "552 rifles and 2/\3OO sharp-pointed cartridges have been extracted from a consignment of 92 beer barrels stopped by the Customs authorities at Venice while en route from Berlin to Tripoli. '■Similar cargoes on a more extensive scale are said to have just come to light at Genoa, Xaples, and Catania. The gravity of the affair is deepened by the fact that the Berlin intriguers deliberately sought to compromise France in the matter, as. with the exception of a few u inchester repeating rifles, all this contraband bears the St. Etfcmie factory mark, and was maliciously entrusted to Messrs. Gondrand, the well-known French linn of forwarding agents. "It was one of Messrs Gondrand's employees who accidently discovered I the trick. A single barrel of a smaller size than the rest, which the senders had evidently reckoned would be singled out for examination, was really full of beer. The rest contained only ten litres of blackish fluid each, while Kinc encased interiors held six unmounted rifles together with a supply el' cartridges packed in boxes of fifty." AUSTRIA'S OMINOUS PREPARATIONS. "I learn from Trieste," says another correspondent, "that squads of Russian prisoners of war and Galician refugees have been sent to Trentino, w here they are working on the defensive fortifications, in digging trendies along the frontier, and clearing away the snow from the mountain passes. "Heavy guns are being mounted in the passes on specially-erected concrete platforms. Masked batteries are being extensively placed close to the frontier, lor the Austrians do not rely on the permanent fortifications, which are well-known to the Italians. The Austrian plan"is to set up secret defences against invasion, which they consider inevitable. "Meanwhile the Austrian Fleet, which since the Anglo-French naval operations in the Dardanelles has often been cruising in the Adriatic, is now again concentrated at Pola, where an Italian attack is feared. Mines are again being promiscuously laid along the coasts, where navigation is almost impossible. Only torpedoboats are out occasionally on patrol duty, and searchlights sweep the horizon throughout the night."