The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1914. ITALY'S ATTITUDE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 97, 19 September 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1914. ITALY'S ATTITUDE.

According to the cables, public feeling m Italy is finding tumultuous expression. Intervention on behalf of France is demanded. Apart from their very natural sympathies for Britain and France, and their just as natural antipathy to Austria, the Italians can see that if they are to realise their century-old ambition to secure their lost provinces ou the Adriatic, they must at once associate themselves with the Allies' cause. They can see that it i 3 "now or never" for them, for it is obvious that the more they can do to assist the Allies now the better they will be treated when the re-adjustment of the map of Europe takes place, a3 it must very shortly. Austria, in her heart of hearts, loves Italy about as much as Germany loves France. They havo absolutely nothing in common. On the contrary, they clash at every turn. Tho Alliance was an unnatural one from the beginning, and was never popular with Italians. It was forced on them by tho cunning of Bismarck, and its renunciation would te welcomed. Austria must know this. She is taking no chances with her Italian subjects, for wo read in the cables that she is putting them in her first line against the victorious Russians. The mortality has been heavy. These troops cannot do what somo of the Slavonic troops in the Austrian army are doing —go over bodily to the Russians.but were Italy to take up the cudgels on behalf of the Allies, they may then have the opportunity of joining their own people. That is the weakness oJ Austria—there is an absence of distinct and separate nationality. She is a polygot nation. In this respect is she unlike any of her enemies. Her military power has been shattered by the Servians and Russians. The next few weeks will witness the shattering also of the Austrian Empire. That is inevitable. Whatever sacrifice she makes on her behalf, Germany can dc, nothing to prevent it. As a matter of fact, Germany will have her hands more than full in holding back the armies menacing her from- three sides. She ultimately must share Austria's fate, but not so quickly, for Germany's military power is as yet far from broken, and will not be broken without considerable fighting and sacrifice of lives. The end will be quickened by Italy's intervention. She could easily spare a quarter of a million men for service with the Allies in France and Germany, and at the same time maintain a vigorous offensive in Austria. Sho must take the offensive, for her northern frontier is a source of serious weakness. Tho Southern Tvtol pushes far down into the Lom-bard-Venetian plain, and though her Austrian frontier follows tho line of the Alps at an elevation of from 7000 to 10,000 feet, the settlement of 1806 left the actual crests of the hills, and tho

heads of the principal valleys, in Austrian hands. "A zig-zag frontier, however mountainous," writes Maguire in his well-known "Outlines of Military Geography," "is defective as exposing flanks, but a zig-zag frontier when the upper reaches of the river arenues are in command of an opponent, is rcry unsatisfactory, and in mountainous countries rivers and valleys and roads are almost synonymous. Tho upper valleys of the Po and the Adige are not Italian. The Austrian Tyrol obtrudes into Lombardy. In the north-east also Austria still commands all the mountain issues." Through this frontier, such as it is, there are two main gateways for large armies on a broad, or comparatively broad, front, the valley of the Adige leading from the Tyrol and the falling ground south of the Julian Alp 3 which gives access across the Isonzo into Friuli. A railway runs from Innsbruck through tho [Brenner Pass, and by Trent down the Valley of the Adige. Threo Austrian railways lead towards th? Isonzo. The two systems are linked up by tho Pusterthal line, which, however, Colonel Repington, the well-known military writer, regards as too near tho frontier to be safe for strategic concentration. (Properly equipped detraining stations exist

on the Villach-Goritz line, and aa many as 60,000 troops have beea assembled m this region for manoeuvres. Between the Adige and the Isonzo three Italian rivers discharge into the Adriatic. Thesearc the Brenta, the Piave and the T&gJiamento. Three railways, with railheads at Chioggia, Padua and Vioenza, are available for an Italian concentration on the Brenta. Beyond that river two lines are available, and they have been specially improved within reeent ■years to facilitate the movement of large forces.. On both sides of the frontier strong fortifications have been i constructed at tho various strategic j joints. Trent is tho special fortres* of the Tyrol, and opposite to it is Verona, ' on the Adige. Italy has Bones of assembly in the upper valleys of ths As- j tico, a tributary of tho Brenta, the I Brenta itself, and tho Piave, and further j to the north-east fortifications at , Agordo, Piave di Oadore, Vigo "and ' Osoppo. From Kreuzburg at the west end of the Ga'rnie Alps ta the Stelvio

Pas* on the borders of Switeerlaad every road of entry has barrier forts on either aide of the frontier. Hitherto it has been usual in discussing a possible Aus-tro-Italian war to assuma that Austria would attempt invasion, and, further, that the naval resources of the two Powers would be fairly balanced. But the events of the past few weeks has changed the whole position. Italy's [main line of advance will probably bo across tho Isonzo towards the strong works at Tarvis, which guard the way to tho Save. But such an advance will be exposed to a flank attack from the Austrian Tyrol, and this will render necessary an antecedent movement in > that direction, or the detachment of forces sufficiently large to neutralise the forces assembled by Austria in that difficult country. . The Tyrol, to quote Colonel Repington, hag good capacity for resistance. There it was that General von Kuhn, with 10,000 men, successfully resisted Garibaldi's 40,000 volunteers in 1800. And von Kuhn has laid down the principles on which Austria will probably endeavor to repel such an invasion if it is attempted. It seems more than probable that if Italy engages in the war she will emerge with the lost Venetian provinces recovered, mistress of the Tomtino, the heads of her river valley 3, and the Dalmation shores of the Adriatic Sea. The spirit of Garibaldi must surely be deeply moved. What would, as a recent writer asked, he not have given for a chance of dictating terms of peace to Austria at Vienna?