The Washington herald., 1914-10-25
ITALY ON verge
OF DECLARATION
Loses Colonies or Dominance
ofAdriatic if She Continues
Her Neutrality.
PREPARATION NECESSARY
Can Throw Millions of Men Against
Austria-Do Not Like French
or Understand Russia.
PREPARATION NECESSARY
Special Gable to The Washington HsnN.

SPECIAL Cable 70 The hashlngton Herld.
Rome, Oct. Att was war or revo-
luton has been said recently OF Ger
many, Of Austria Hungary. and of Rus
that the Sandman dynasty stands in
jeopardy of its throne IL war is not made
on the side OF the allies.
Italy's neutral stand will not do and
the deeper thinkers among the friends of
King Victor Emmanuel know it,. II the
Teutonic empires win, Italy will be open
TO German aggression without a friend
10 whom to turn; If the allies win, Italy
will see the east shore Of the Adriatic
kingdom Of Servia, hand and glove with
Russia.
In one case she loses her colonies. in
the other the dominance Of the Adriatic
Italy Must Fight.
So Italy must fight and fight soon
There is practically no sentiment for the
Kaiser, and the neutrality element is
confined to the industrial centers north
OF Florence.
When go to fight Austria, I will take
my wife and children along" fiercely de-
clared Roman. The Austrians held my
grandparents in slavery. They still keep
Trentino and Trieste in bondage, and
Istria and Dalmatia shall be ours also"
This epitomizes the sentiment of the
Italians. The memory of the Austrian
yoke is stronger TO them than the re-
membrance Of Prussian invasion is to
the French.
Only lack Of preparation has prevented
the Italians from entering the fray ere
now. Italy is poor and debt-ridden. The
Tripon war exhausted the treasury. Since
that combat the army and navy had
been allowed to fall into a sad state.
There has been a cabinet overturn by
reason OF this.
Accomplish Wonders.
But the last two months and a half
have seen wonders accomplished. The
standing army when the war broke out
this summer had fallen far below its
normal peace footing Of 100000 men.
Three classes Of reserves, men born in
1878, were Immediately called to arms
Then the class of 1894, boys who were
due to join the colors this autumn, were
brought into the levy two months before
their time and have been trained under
the so-called ''inte1sifed system" which
aims to make them fully efficient in
forty days.
At the beginning of this month the
men of 1884 1885 1856 and 1855 classes
began to flock to the colors. This
brought the total troops under arms to
l.5SbWJO men. Elghty thousand veterans
from Tripoli were brought TO Italy and
replaced abroad with less able troops
The bad state of preparation was es-
pecially deplorable in the cavalry and
artillery arms. A shortage of horses was
apparent and the government, which
could not requisition horses until a gen.
eral mobilization was ordered, purchased
10000 animals in the district of Viterbo
alone, paying the high price Of 500 on
the average. Italy is especially proud
Of her cavalry, the officers being dash
ing riders.
Cut Down Number of Guns.
The war caught the artillery in the
midst of very slow movement to pro-
vide strictly modern guns. 1t was found
impossible on account OF the war, which
closed foreign factories to Italy, to equip
the twentyfour regiments of artillery
with the required number Of cannon.
This was remedied by the doubtful ex-
pedient of reducing the number of guns
in each battery from four to three. Each
regiment instead of having eight batter
les with a total of thirty-two guns.
now has twenty-four cannon and the
number of horses required for each bat
terry has accordingly been reduced to
thirty-six.
The deficiency in horses will also be
made up largely by motor traction. A
complete list of all privately owned mo-
tor cars is ready SO that all can be
requisitioned and put in use within twen-
ty-four hours
The army was also found TO lack equip
ment, such as boots. uniforms and un-