Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-02-17

/ fort almost impossible. As TO the
difficulty of communication. there is
no doubt The streets and even the
quay were blocked. there was no tele-
phone. the situation permitted little
signalling. The landmarks of the
city were so completely removed thar
often detachment must have found
it hard to identify its allotted sector.
Water communication there was prac-
tically none One or two torpedo
boats doing an omnibus service along
the waterfront would have been sim
ply availaOfe. Messages had to be
carried on foot through streets that
wanted an Alpinist TO negotiate them
quickly. On New Years day ! saw
the first horses Je,ng landed for the
officers, and todas read that yester-
day the first be4st-driven vehicles
moved in ruined Messina.
As TO both che army and navy, 1t
should be recalled that il was the
height of The holiday season, and
many of the officers and men were on
leave and could not rejoiu their COM
mands in time The matter of the
wreelling tools raises a rather deli
cate question. 1t seems that troops
sent TO a city known to be destroyed
by an earthquake should have been
equipped. moi with rifles, but with
picks. ropes. and crowbars AT Ma
ples. Catania, and Palermo We're
plenty procurable within a day. As
a matter OF fact. the authorities de-
| pended for this work upon the mere
handful OF sappers in each battalion
and upon the small contingent OF the
engineers that could be promptly
sent AS for TOOLS the Russian
SQUADS of which saw many at work.
carried merely rather light crowhars.
heavy hooks. and coils of rope. 1t
was about all the apparatus that could
be used in the conditions l submit
that there was rope enough on the
battleships and liners, and steel bars
enough in their machine shops to
have fitted out a hundred squads OF
life savers 1t simply occurred to no
one that engineering work could he
done otherwise than by the book
Facing an Emergency.
realize perfectly how easy it is 10
/ think of these things afterwards, in
the quiet of Capri, far from the sight
and stencil Of Messina, but / plead
aisc that military efficiency is meas
! ured by the ability TO deal sharply
with emergencies not covered by the
books. Between the bad harbor serv-
! ice AT Messina and the paralysis OF
the troops before the tangled ruins
there is no question that ten thousand
lives were lost that might have been
saved. The real nature of the prof
lem of getting the wounded aboar
ship and the living captives out OF
the ruins was not even a2prehended
nv those i'm control This conclusion
think. is unacceptable Here is nc
intention to cast the slightest dis
credit upon those who brought brave
hearts and willing hands to an un
paralleled and appallingly difficult en-
terprise. If nothing like Messlht
could ever recur It might be best tS
saw the smooth things only. But II
time of war OF cataclysmic disas'e
these conditions in measure VIII re
cur and candid admission OF Tn
errors at Messina may save lives Il
time to come.
And. after all, perhaps. the cas-
r hollis down to one of individual initia
: tive. The Italian merchant marin
, rarely has shone in dire confusion
~ tho gathered Italian foot soldier