RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 22 November 1918, Page 5

RUSSIA.

FIGHTING THE BOLSHEVIKS. LONDON, Nov 20. A British North Russian official message* says; Bolsheviks, on Nov. 11, after bombarding from river •boats on the Dvina, attacked our front and flank. The Anglo-American infantry drove them back with heavy losses, the Canadian field artillery materially, assisting. The attack was renewed on November 12th and was again repulsed 'with heavy losses.

ITALIAN POET-AIRMAN. —roa IMPRESSIONS OF D'ANNUNZIO.

A little dapper figure with enormous glasses, a bundle of nervous en-1 ergy with a curiously precise intonation. That is your first impression as you shake hands with one of the most famous characters of Italian history, one of the men who best express the Italian spirit—Gabriele d'Annunzio, writs the correspondent of a London paper. One of his books, which is not for sale in commerce, but is only given to those -who fight, bears the untranslatable title of "La Riscossa," and he is himself as untranslatable. He defies analysis." Primarily d'Annunzio is a poet-air-man, but he is even prouder, I believe, of one of his feats on the sea, for I have se"en a book inscribed in his own handwriting, in which he describes himself as "The Sailor of Buccari." That visit in a destroyer to the outskirts of Pola, however, was nothing to his aerial feats, his constant bombing of enemy positions and enemy ports, his flight to Vienna, and other aerial journeys ttyt he has yet in prospect. He is no amateur airman who seeks notoriety in a novel way. He knows all about different varieties of machines and their capabilities; what can and what cannot be done with them. He took to flying late in life, to. help. Italy in the way that to ,him seemed best, and he took to it with a, studious enthusiasm that has made him an ideal squadron leader. ' The poet-airman lived in l S" little Vv r ooderr""but in a - mosquito-ridden. ; marsh. The Austrians appeared to know the accurately; for once;, they dropped a bomb within five yards of the, hut. vlt-hit a tree- as it-fell, and. the fuse was knocked pff, that; it J hit the ground without exploding. The '■ interior of the room is hung-wi-th-col-oured cretonnes. In one corner stands a little camp bed. Aidrig" : - 6'ne wall is a divan and by' the 'a' small' writing-table. "The" place ■ is' simplicity itself —and two miles'awayon the Grand Canal there is a palace

that the gondolier's point cut' tb/you' as the home of d'Annunzio. "Those ;"-pf us'who have seen the real war-time home of the poet smile—and.say no-' thign. Gondoliers must'.fiave . jcfieir* say. ."< >r • ■ . -.• -ov :■■■■-. ~;>