Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1919 — ITALY WON WAR DESPITE ODDS [ARTICLE]

ITALY WON WAR DESPITE ODDS

Outnumbered, She Brought on Debacle by Magnificent Work. DREAM OF CENTURY REALIZED Redemption of Lost Domains Brought About by Force of Arms—-Sent Forces Into France, Albania, Macedonia and Palestine. Washington. —The Italian troops were well on their way Into' Trentino when the armistice halted the allied armies on their many battle fronts. The dream of a century of the Italian people —the redemption of their lost domains in the north —was being realized by the force of arms when the German-Austrian collapse made it sure that the Trentino, like Alsace-Lorraine, would be returned by the peace terms to the mother race. Trentino Italian. The Austrian government in its latest official census admitted that the

Trentino was Italian by 370,000 out of its 380,000 population. The whole district had retained the Latin culture in spite of the efforts to Germanize It in language and customs. Attempts at rebellion had been put down ruthlessly by the Austrian masters. Seeds of dissension sowed by the Austrians had caused estrangement between the Italian Irredentists and the Jugo-Slavs, whose interests since have proved to be parallel. ■ The Italians had fought not only against superior Austrian forces, but against the physical difficulties presented in the mountainous districts of the frontier. In three years of fighting under the most difficult conditions the Italians took from their hereditary enemies prisoners numbering 4,489 officers jjnd 169,896 enlisted men. Italian engineers built 3,500 kilometers of road and swung 1,500 kilometers of cable from cliff to cliff for the transportation of troops and munitions. Italy has called to arms little fewer than 5,500,000 men, of which she.has lost 1,500,000. In recent fighting on the Austrian frpnt Italy had at her disposal only 54 divisions to oppose the 70 divisions of the enemy. In addition Italy sent forces Ifith France.” Albania, Macedonia and which, it is said, were greater than the French, British and American forces sent to aid Italy. Not Prepared for War. - Italy did all this at a time whep she was not well prepared for war in her Industries and natural resources. She especially lacked coal. The Trentino with the Italian occupation could .not be much more Italian in spirit than under the Austrian rule. Trent, ai city of 30,000 inhabitants, is typically Italian In customs and architecture. Such is the condition in Riva, on Lake Garda, and other important . towns in the district. The rural dlstricts. too, are almost completely Italian In language and spirit. It Is one of the anomalies of history that such a province could remain so long under an alien yoke. It was highly prized by the Hapsburgs for its military possibilities, a mountain wedge projecting into Italy, as one Italian' writer expressed it, “an enormous' foot "Shod with mountains upon the neck of Italy.”