SLOW PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 October 1943, Page 3

SLOW PROGRESS

IN DRIVE ON ROME SOME TROUBLED COMMENT IN BRITAIN. BIG DIVERSIONARY OPERATIONS POSSIBLE. (By Telegraph- -Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. October 24. The battle on the Fifth Army . front is going very slowly, says the “Daily Express” correspondent, Alan Moorehead. There is hardly a gain of half a mile a day, and Rome is still over 100 miles away. “The armies are stuck as though in a bottle-neck, and wherever we strike we find resistance,” he writes. “Since the first landing we have taken only a handful of prisoners, and now they have practically stopped coming in. Many people argue that the German plan is to lure us into pockets along the front as they make a general withdrawal toward Rome, but we are taking the offensive less and less. The whole Allied push has been allowed to slow down.” The “Daily Mail” in a leading article, says: “The news from the Italian front is disappointing. The British public is increasingly troubled at the different rates of the advance in Italy and in Russia. The public misses the Alexander and Montgomery touch about the recent operations in Italy.” After suggesting that the sense of frustration may be due to the scanty nature of the news which is filtering out through the censorship, the “Mail” says that judgment should be reserved for the present, and adds: “It is difficult to believe that the Allied command intends foot-slogging its way over the hundreds of miles to the Po River, and even to the Brenner Pass. Vast disersionary operations in the Balkans or elsewhere may be nearer than we think.” The paper concludes: “The British and American command is entitled at this stage to implict confidence,- but it must see that that confidence is not let down by over-caution or clinging to outmoded methods of warfare.” NAZI PLUNDERING HOTELS & SHOPS LOOTED IN MILAN. LONDON, October 24. The Germans in Milan have taken possession of all hotels and shops and

are transporting everything portable to Germany, including cars, bicycles and livestock, says the Algiers radio.