ITALY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1918, Page 5

ITALY.

ITALIANS TURNING. fiNEMY FORCED FROM BRIDGFJIEAD London, Jan. 2. Italian oflicial. —Owing to our energetic pressure since tlie 27tii the enemy lias abandoned the bridgehead at Zenson and crossed to the left bank of the l'iave, sulfering heavy loss. We now hold the whole Zenson bend. The enemy bombed during the night Vieentia, Bassano, Castle Franco and Treviso. Thirteen were killed and 44 '.vounded. MORALE RESTORED. 1 AD VI It TO ITALIAN NATION. Tiome. .Tan. 2. General Diaz, in an interview, expressed satisfaction at the discipline and bravery of the Italians since the retifat. During the recent furious fighting they in some places fell back 500 yards, but solidly entrenched on the new lines. He praised the concord of (lie Italian and Allied troops. If the Italian people accepted similar discipline to that of the Allied nations victory would not bo I.ik - ing. BOMBARDMENT OF PADUA. THE POPE'S PROTEST. Bcme, Jan, 2. The Osservatore Romano states that the Pope lias called the attention of the Central Powers to the nselessncss of aerial bombardments of Padua and similar massacres. He urges them to abandon suck methods. A DURABLE PEACE. KECONCILIABLE WITH PEOPLE'S LIBERTY. Rome, Jan. 2. I The Senate unanimously voted confidence in the Government. The Premier, referring to the Brest Litovsk Conference, said that, although desiring peace, the Allies would only accept peace reconciliable with the liberty of the peoples. The Allied Governments had. not, consulted regarding the Russo-Gerraan overtures. THE INVASION OF ITALY. Its unbelievable suddenness was the supreme characteristic of the AustroGerman success in Italy, writes the iorrespondent of the Morning Post (London) On trie morning of October 24 the Italian army was a highly organised force fighting on enemy territory. It was deeply and laboriously entrenched. It !ian thousands of guns of every salibrc. Its rearward services were extraordinarily well composed. Three thousand live hundred miles of excellent new roads witnessed to the skill of its military engineers. Bridges, railways, calfleways, wells, equeducts, whole towns of semipermanent buildings, and all the immense industrial equipment of war existed behind the Italian front to a degree of completion which it had taken ."0 months to achieve. And now in as many hours the Italian Army was forced to abandon all it had gained by its sacrifices and labors. For the strategy of the enemy's attacks was so conceived that the utmost speed was necessary in the retirement if the greater part of the Italian forces were not to be cut off. There was no time for gradual withdrawal. Confusion was inevitable. What could not be moved immediately had to be destroyed—and was destroyed. In their retreat the Italians had to cross .several rivers, and over the Tagliamento thcrs are three bridges only, and on to them all t.ne vast mass of men and material had to converge. The Italian General Staff had estimated that to withdraw this army of over a million men under normal conditions would have 1 required, with constant hard work, a month. As it was, it was done in three days.