The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-24
POWERS NOW
 ENGAGED IN CONFLICT
tContinued from Page o..,
tria offering Italy further concessions as late as May 10.
 The First Move

The First Move
 Italy's first move on land undoubtedly will be against the Austrian frontier. The mountainous character of the terrain where the opposing armies face eaech each other promises operati tions and fight ing of the most difficult nature. For sev- eral weeks past both Austro- Hunge.rians and Italian armies have been fortifyin. along the dividing line.
 So far as known the Italian fleet Is mostly in the Adriatic under command of the Duke of the Abruzzi. It is gen. erally believed the fleet will proceed promptly against the naval strength of A efr | fhese waters
 On the Adriatic are the Austrian ports oi 4f.4s. .-..s ,1oia and Plume is in Hun gary. The Dalmatian coast is also trias The Dardanelles are less than S01 miles from southern Italy and her par t;cipation in the operations against thesu Turkish positions is expected.
 One great purpose of Italy in ente-- ing the war Is to gain posee-iion of .un- redeemed Italy" a sweep of Austrian ter ritory north and east near the head of the Adriatic sea. This region which in cludes Trent and rriest. is Italian in all but nationality. To attain it has lon been her cherished ambition.
 The territory in dispute may be de- fined roughly as the sections of Austria south of a line drawn in the Rhact titan Alps where Italy, Austria and switte~- land meet, eastv-. I'd to the Carnic Alps, and thence southward along to the italian Alps and again eastward as to i.l. clude Fiume This territory is cal. sd Italia 1rredenta'' (Unredeemed 1ta,y). because it once formed part of the Italian states of the middle ages and because nP nf fnli For the same reason the Dalmatian is- lands are considered to be part of "ltalia lrrendenta"
 The district of the city of Trent once formed part of the Roman colony )i Tridentini which in 1927 passed rndei the rule of bishop and then. after rious changes came into possession of Austria together with Lombardy and Venetia. After the defeat of Austria In 1859 by Piedmont and France, and even after Piedmont had taken over Lombardy and the Kingdom of Italy had beer formed in 1861, Austria continued to hold venetia until her defeat in the Austro- German war of 1866 gave it to Italy. There was left in possession of AustriS, how ever, the wede of the Trent district, as menace to Italy.
 | The territory to the eastward, whici
 Italy desires is made up principally O | Istria. In early days a part of tn republic of Venice, 1t passed to Austria l together with Dalmatia, with the aboll | tion of the republic in 17T. In 1905 Aus tria was compelled by Napoleon to ced seized 1t back.
 | Aside from the Dalmatian islands. tn | territory sought by Italy includes abou | 5000 square miles, with more than 1,000,OC i inha bitants.
 | Was Below Normal Footing | When the European war began Italy army was considerably below the nor 1 nal peace footing. estimated at 5000 men, Almost half of these troops wer l in Tripoli Three classes of men wer
 called to colors immediately and other were summoned from time to time unt
 the active. or first line army number
 more than 100000 men of all arms. Tn | age limit of a reservist in Italy is 5
 Men between that age and 40 form tn territorial army. consisting of eigf classes amounting to about 1,150,000 secon line troops. There also are about 10000 men trained but exempt from militar service. who in case of urgent nece' s;ty could be called to arms. Voluntet corps likewise could be formed, so ths Italy's total war strength, including r' serves of all kinds, is figured at abou 100000 mon.
 In eight months Italy has spent $4o00o0 GOO in military preparations. Profting h the lessons of the war to date partis
 ular attention was paid to artillery an her equipment in this arm is said to unexcelled in the worlds arms Her heav guns arc reported to be superior to tn famous German and Austrian type an in military circles there have been IT mors that she has evolved a field piet of about three-inch calibre exceeding
 range accuracy. easy of handling an
 effectiveness of projectile, even the fs
 nous French 'T6."
 Italy has a powerful fleet of moder warships The Duke of the Abruzzi cousin of King Victor Emmanuel, who
 the chief naval officer of Italy. recent
 assumed command of i've dreadnaught
 the most powerful squadron ever assen
 bled under the Italian flag. In addftio
 Italy has eight battleships of the pr'
 dreadnaught type. nine arrnored cruiser
 1s protected cruisers and the usual con
 plement of destroyers and torpedo boat
 She also has s6 submarines.
 Italy's population (191S is given as 1
 2ss. 900. Military or naval service is con puisory and universal.
 PlacinH the Blame From tho Boston Transcript. Judge (to woman asking separation)- Hn0y baU ot1nnm hRen