Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1917 — Rome and Its Air Defenses. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Rome and Its Air Defenses.

ROME Is situated in an admirable position from the viewpoint of Tirrtt-aeriat defense; Not - only is it in the usual sense a fortified city, but it lies In a wide plain surrounded by hills at successive levels that render minute and long distance observation singularly easy. The theory of a hidden and possible Important airplane base somewhere by the Tyrrhenean sea, that could send its aircraft to Rome along the flat shores or the Maremma marshes, has now proved to be highly Improbable, writes Magda Sindici in the Chicago News. The latter would be the best side on which to attack, only it has the great disadvantage as a scheme, of not being—so far —feasible. Seashore and Maremma marshes would have to be approached, failing this western base, by crossing the higher Apennines. It is, perhaps, difficult to place anti-air-craft batteries along these peaks sufficient in number to protect the whole mountain chain; but spur after spur of the Apennines runs at right angles to the main range from this spinal celumn of Italy to the sea; and these spurs are protected at every strategic point, that is, wherever the mountainous district merges into a plain. Munition Works in Umbria. All over the dreamy province of Umbria, so called because of the “shade” once cast over the land by the thick woods that covered it, batteries are concealed. This province seems to have gathered to itself all the gentleness of Italy, as if* the spirit of its ancient agricultural inhabitants, older than the Etruscans, had managed to survive the impact-es Agree medlevalwar. Umbria holds the town of Terni, with its unresting steel and munition works —a great goal for bomb throwers and many times attacked. , The little river Nera comes tumbling along close by it, between high, cool banks, so hasty and vivid that its waters lash themselves into perpetual foam; and just above the Nera, the gray gleam of guns adds a contrasting touch to the peasants in blue overalls and the red tasseled white, cattle for which the district is famous. Close under an old rambling convent watched by ageless cypresses, which strike a warm brown note in a surrounding scale of hard grays, another battery lurks; Calvl, perched at the top of the last hill before the Apennines dwindle away into the valley of the Tiber, must not be left undefended. I know an old peasant there, who perhaps still trudges along the same road every dawn and nightfall with his ax and his spade, who asked me, not so long ago, if it were true that there now existed some mad folk, among other iniquitous children of this wicked century, who were trying to

fly in the air. I told him the report was quite true. “Flying in the face of Providence;** he saidsadly; ‘‘tempting Providence!” Batteries All Around the City. On the hills above Tivoli, in view of the temple where the prophetic books were kept that held the story of Rome and where a wise sibyl uttered oracular truths tempered with probability, another battery, of straight muzzles takes heed only of the deep, silken' night sky. This Is a larger towhlet than the village of Calvi, and the inhabitants, lulled to a semihypnotic somnolence by the never ceasing spell of their waterfalls, know little of the wary guns that guard their slumbers. Along Rome’s immediate coronet of hills, above that Latium where ghostly lines of aqueducts and here and there a ruined group of gnatled old tower spell out the tale of Roman and barofiial days, more batteries guard the se- . curity of the eternal city, and the same is the ease farther down where a little well of acidulous water j:hat is much drunk in the hot weather sends in"TtS“ daily supply on summer mornings, together with the brightly colored fruit carts, to be sold in the streets heralded by a strange, sing songing cry. As far away as the Simbruni hills that lead in gradations of wildness to the harsh heart of central Italy, the Rome-Sulmona railroad has its grim guardian angels. And at Subiaco, the cradle of western monastic orders, all is ready against the incursion of illintentioned creatures of the air. Vatican Real Help to Rome. And yet, it Is perhaps the„ that constitutes the best and surest anti-aerial weapon. The pope lives within its walls, and Austria, the most Catholic monarchy, will send no bombs to Rome. As the capital of Italy, Rome would perhaps not be spared, but a stray bomb on the Vatican would trouble the consciences of the dual monarchy more than the slaughter of any number of innocent noncombatants and create complications for the imperial government greater than they care to face. It Is doubtful whether even Protestant Germany would care to affront the conscience of a not inconsiderable part of its population. There have been no formal assurances given to that effect—if they exist they have not been made public—yet there seems to be a tacit understanding that because of the pope’s presence Rome is to be respected. Thus, this city of many vicissitudes, though prayer and fastfng are as much out of date as a means of defense as the “terror by night” that haunted the old monks of Subiaco, carries within herself a purely spicltual defense more powerful than any girdle of steel.

View of the Vatican.