New Britain herald., 1917-11-16

 Italy, Nov 16.-(By the Associated Press) The flood gates of the Piave and Sile rivers, northeast of Venice, have been opened by Italian en- gineers.
 The action of the Italians in open ing the flood gates probably means an attempt to drown out the Austro- German forces which crossed the lower Piave several days ago at Gris- olera, about 17 miles northeast of Venice
 The flooding of the triangle formed by the two rivers and the Adrlat1c also probably would make ineffective any German attempt to debouch in force against the right flank of the Italian army along the Piave.
 South of San Dona Di Piave, the Sile and Piave rivers are very close together and near here flood gates were constructed to hold the rivers in check. On both sides the land is at or below a level.
 On Piave Battlefront.
 The Italian general staff gave the first opportunity yesterday to see the PiaVe battlefront and the correspond ent was among the first four civilians authorized to take the trip. It came at an opportune moment when the enemy had succeeded in getting small parties across the river at two points and when the holding or breaking of the Piavc line promised to bring the whole issue into the balance for Italy and, tO some extent for the entire Entente.
 An officer from the hoadquart CTS staff was in charge of the party, which ], lines to the Piave where the chief points 1lcns the thirty miles of front were visible and a view obtained of the whole range of the gigantic op- crations.
 Some ter. miles back from the river the.' correspondent passed through solid miles of troops coming from and going to the front. Those going to the rear were undiscovered and tired, but not disheartened Those going forward appeared resolute and some were singing. Refugees afoot and in OK carts croded the fields and roads, seeking safety from this sudden on- rush of the enemy. The party passed Riete, little hamlet where Pope Plus X was born. and a. small crossroad church marked the place where he used to be a curate before his eleva- tion to the Papacy.
 An air raid took place as the party passed near the church. Five shots were fired but the raider got away, Knots of soldiers filled the streets of villages as they stood gazing at the black pail of smoke in the east At the outskirts of the villages there were long lines of chevaus- de- -frise ready to obstruct infantry rushes. Along the road toward the front mill itary telegraph lines were strung on the tops of bushes as there had been no time to erect poles.
 First Stop Made.
 The first stop was made at Aso1o, ten miles back from the river, where the ancient castle to which Queen Catharine of Cyprus retired on her abdication, located on high hill, gave a, commanding view of the whole panorama of the battle front. The climb to the castle was 700 feet and from this erninence spread out a peace- full plain to the west and the battle line to the east.
 The Plave lay straight ahead. It appeared rather wide at this point al- though further on it was so narrow that 1t was difficult to believe a des- perate foe could be restrained by such a barrier even in the face of the Italians heroic resistance. Across the river five small villages, now held by the enemy, could be seen. Houses churches. and towers stood out plainly. These were on the plain bordering the east bank for 0 half mile back where the foothills rose to high hills on which the German and Austrian bat teries were located. The cannonade had now become heavy and con- tinuous and bursts of smoke from the hills on the other side of the P1ave marked the line of the enemy's bat ter1es.
 The route now turned along the west bank of tho river, where long lines of peaceful villages had been suddenly by terror of the enemy bombardment. The towns people were hastily gathering their together. and the women and children seemed terrified as they