The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-23

NV AsHINGToN' D. C.. July y.. n. ;s. Exf Special )-"Across the Straits w of Otranto where an Austrian cruiser is reported to hace sunk several armored British patrol boats recently have sailed some of the greatest history making expeditions of ancient and me
 dieval times" says today's war geogra- phy bulletin issued by the National Ge- ographic society in Washington. rms 50-mile expanse of water, which joins the Adriatic and Ionian seas, separates the southeastern extremity or heel of the Italian peninsula from that part of Al bania which was known in ancient times as Epirus.
 Tt is 60 miles from Otranto, the beau- tifully situated Italian fishing village which gives it's name to the straits, to Avlona, the nearest port in Albania -Four hundred miles to the northwest are Ven- ice and Trieste, at the head Of the Adrl- atic while $50 miles to the southwest beyond the Ionian sea, is the British pos session. Malta.
 "At the beginning of the war Otranto was a town of scarcely more than 2OoO inhabitants but of some importance as the Italian terminus of the cable and telegraph line to Constantinople, via AV- Iona, It also had cable connection with the island of Corfu. The towns histor- ical associations date back to Graeco- Roman times, for it occupies the site or the ancient Hydrus, and was one Of Rome's ports of embarkation for Apollo nia the famous Greek center of culture and city in which the future Emperor, Augustus, was completing his education at the time that he was summoned to the capital following the assassination of Julius Caesar
 towns captured in 1868 by Robert Guis- card the sly), that resourceful Norman adventurer who, at the high tide of his career gave promise of duplicating in southern Italy and in Greece the tri- umphs won by his fellow countryman, William the Conqueror, who, during the same decade, was subduing England. Four hundred years later the seaport was agair, raided and this time was com pletely destroyed by the Turks. From | this setback it never recovered. Among the points of interest in the village today are the castle, built by Alphonso of Ara gon, and the cathedral. which dates back | to the eleventh century and in which are to be found some of the columns that
 once graced the temple of Minerva at San Nicola
 1 South of Otranto Is an extremely fer
 tile and populous section of the Apulian peninsula, which terminates 30 miles be.
 low the town in the promontory of Maria
 di Leuca, with it's white limestone cliffs
 marking the southeastern extremity of
 Italy. To the northwest of Otranto, 5i miles by rail, is Brindisi, the famous Brandusium of the ancients which has
 taken on new life in recent years, owing
 to its advantageous position as a gate way for the freight coming from beyond
 the Alps through the Saint Gothard and the Mt Cenis tunnels, and destined for
 the far east through Suez.
 l "Avlona, also called Valona, on the
 eastern shores of the Otranto straits has the best harbor on the Albanian coast
 being protected by the island of Saseno
 aid the lofty Cape Glossa. Like Otranto it suffered pillage at the hands of the Turks in the fifteenth century, but Il recovered from this misfortune more readily than its Italian sister city. fol it is now a town of 6000 people. and en
 joys a considerable trade in hides olives
 cotton, cattle and bitumen, while it i' famo6s for valonia made from the acorr cups gathered in adjacent oak groves This flour which derives it's name iron the town, is used extensively in the tan
 ming industry.
 Tt was across the Straits of Otrantl