The Cordova daily times., 1916-07-07
[ ITALIANS NOW WELCOME THE
 PRESS

HEADQUARTERS OF THE TEAL IAN ARMY, June 30. - (Correspon' dence of the Associated Press. 1.-The Italian censorship has been reorgan- ized and vastly improved. particular | ly from a newspaper point of view. Little censorship is now exdrcised | over mail matter coming from or go- ing to ally countries, such as France or England, but every mailed letter or package going to or coming from the United States and Switzerland is opened and read. The censors. how ever, are sometimes courteous enough to notify a person sending suspected matter that it is being held for ex' planation. Tn the case of cable mes sages. the censor tries his best to let them go through, either holding the message for a time before sending it, or else cutting out objectionable information, sending the message in the new form. and then notifying the sender what portions have been eli minated.
 One of the reasons for the more fav- orable attitude of the Italian censor ship is an abatement of the spy mania hand the realization that this class of information is not as harmful as was formerly supposed.
 Another reason has been the influ- ence of certain officers, patriotic jour nalists and business men, who feel that Italy has not been fully under stood in this war and that correspon- dence both of private individuals and newspaper men visiting or living in the country would, if not too severely censored let the outside world know the truth about conditions and the reasons for Italy's war.
 A direct result of this attitude has been the establishment recently at the headquarters of the army of a press bureau. One of the first steps | taken by the officers in charge was to secure permission for both ally and neutral journalists to visit the army front and see the fruits of ltaly's ef- 1 fort to organize a splendid new army. l Previous to the existence of this bu- reau but very few civilians had been | allowed on the Italian front. The i'm | pression had gotten abroad that Italy did not want her front visited, and therefore no requests to visit it had been made, particularly by neutrals.
 The visitors at present admitted on the front, once the officers of the press bureau had satisfied themselves these visitors are without unfriendly intentions, are shown fully and freely all that they wish to see. In the hand ling of newspaper copy written from the front, the largest latitude is per mitted the writers. Restrictions about naming geographical locations are cast aside, since 1t Is evident that the Aus trians have military maps of the re- zion, and as they are within speaking distance of the Italian soldiers for nearly every foot of the four hundred miles of front, it would be difficult to hide from them the names of the rivers and mountains and towns along the front.
 The press bureau, although not long formed, has already justified itself 1t is stated, in the better understand inc by France and England of the ter rife difficulties under which the Ital ian army works in mountainous ter ritory, where it takes weeks to move large bodies of troops of put artillery into new positions, and where the talk ing of single mountain involves the patient effort and staunch heroism oi months of hard fighting
 The numbers frequently referred tc in official military bulletins. in con nection with operations at places the names of which are not mentioned has given rise to the popular impres sion that the number is used, in order to withhold exact information as te the geography of the operations.
 AS a matter of fact, and particu ! larly in mountain operations, the us' ! of a number conveys the most exac and accurate information. Every hill top and mountain in Europe has loni
 been identified by number Thi number is not an arbitrary one. It |
 the exact height in meters-(one me !. ter is 39.37 inches)-of the hilltop o !: mountain above the sea level. As n' :: sucb hilltoDs or mountains have thu