ITALY.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1915, Page 5

ITALY.

THE FATE OF GORIZIA. AUSTRIAN" REPORT. Amsterdam, 'Nov. 2S. An Austrian communique says that desperate lighting continues around Gorizia, We maintained our positions. The bombardment of Gorizia by heavy guns is incessant. K. OF K. AT ROME. MEETS ITALIAN- MINISTERS. Rome, Nov. 28. Lord Kitchener and Sir Rennell Rodd (British Ambassador in Rome) conferred with Signer Salandra (Italian Premier), Baron Sonnino (Foreign Minister), and other Ministers. The newspapers have eulogistic articles 011 Lord Kitchener. STRENGTH OF GORIZIA. A GREAT NATURAL FORTRESS. The fall of Gorizia to the Italians gives peculiar interest to a description recently given by a special correspondent to the London Morning Post. The correspondent, writing from the Italian front, said: This camp is certainly one of the wonders of the present European war. Modern artillery has shown that artificial fortifications are of extremely limited value, or perhaps of no value at all. Gorizia is a striking demonstration of the superiority of natural strategic position. In fact, the entrenched camp of Gorizia is nothing but a prodigious natural fortress. The city, which lies in the centre, is encircled by the Isonzo, while on the southern s ! de, by which it is approached by the invading forces, is a tumultuous arid treacherous stream, peculiarly adapted for its defence. And alongside the river, and beyond it both on the east and the \yest, Gorizia is surrounded by an uninterrupted succession of hills and mountains. Seen from afar, these slopes have the exact appearance of gigantic redoubts. Their continuity constitutes their defensive strength. There is not a single point which leaves an. opening for the army of investment in this frontal barrier in the Collio, from Gorizia to Cormons and all the plains of the Friuli from Cormons to Cividale. History has already demonstrated the strategic value of Gorizia. It was the most solid barrier to the invasions of the Barbarians which the ancient Romans possessed. Throughout the Middle Ages Gorizia was the critical centre of all the great battles for the conquest of Venetia. But this is the first time that it has served to bar the way to a people marching northwards to fight for their liberties and the security of their country. The Italians have had to encounter not only natural obstacles, but obstacles carefully prepared by the enemy during the long months of Italy's neutrality. The Curso and. Gorizia were the only points at which the Austrians did not. possess the natural advantages of the terrain, and where an invasion of their adversaries was to be feared. The defences they constructed of steel and reinforced concrete are models of strategic ingenuity. "On the mountains that defend the flanks of Gorizia, from the tableland of Tcrnova to that of Doberdo, the Austrians planted cannon in that region. All these artillery positions are linked up together by means of a gigantic telegraphic and telephonic system. As I have said 011 a former occasion, 011 no part of the fighting front in this European War has an army found itself face to face, with obstacles sucli as the Italian forces have encountered, and it is necessary tp take this into account in estimating the importance of the progress they Imve made up to the present. In reality, that progress has been very great. The defence of Gorizia continues only at one point, the town itself. Originally, the Austrian bulwarks were four in number—Monte San Michele. the Podgora, the Pevnn, and the Sabotino. All of them are now in the grip of the. Italian pincers. The advantages of tho famous 'entrenched camp' lmve, to a large extent, been nullified, thanks to the daring and heroism of the Italian troops, who have captured with the bayonet successive lines of trenches, braving the murderous fire of the enemy and the mines which have been laid behind his wire entanglements, and dragging heavy cannon up those dizzy heights in order that they might meet the enemy artillery 011 even terms. The enormous number of troops which Austria poured into the region of Gorizia and tho Carso were powerless to arrest the inarch of the Italians. Of the eighteen thousand prisoners captured by the latter up to the present, more than three-fourths surrendered at this particular extremity of the Italian front."