The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-11-03
AVENG|NG LEG|ONS
P[UNG|NG AHEAD
$4,000 Prisoners Taken By
Italians in Victorious
Drive.
ENEMY IN WILD FLIGHT
Army Without a Country Flies
it Knows Not Where With
Allies Upon
Heels.
ENEMY IN WILD FLIGHT

London. Nov. I'm the hands
of ono Inan-thc Austrian COM
mander i'm chicf-rcsts the fate
OF the Austro-Hungarien army.
He alone can avert the greatest
military cataclysm of history-the
cutting 10 pieces. or capture,
of three-Quarter> Of million
men. Eighty thousand OF them
already have been made prisoners
and the bulk of the Austrian artil-
lery-t.6O0 heavy pietes-is in
allied hands.
Along the whole i5o-milc
front-fIOm he southeastern
edge OF the 1'rentino to the
Adriatic-.Diaz's ayenging leyions
arc plunging ahead and every
where, except In the Asiaeo re-
gion the scene Of n life and death
struggle, the Austrians are In wild
flight. The only way the Austrian
generalissimo can prevent the an
Inhalation of his armies Is To ac-
ccpt Internationally the allied
armisticss terms. They are In his
hands. Diaz sent them to him
upon receipt from Versailles,
where all comforting powers sub-
scribed to them. They arc based
upon President Wilson's fourteen
principles.
But the Austrian commanders posi-
ton ia unique in the annals of history.
He is generalissin,o without a govern
ment behind him. His army is virtu-
ally an army without country. For
Austria Hungary Is no more. Ills,
and their supreme" War Lord
Charles III X an emperor without "a
q king without kingnufn.
The oniy thing that is left to testify
that there was once n dual monarchy
Is this very army staggering backward
under Diaz's blows For II contains
Austrians and Hungarians Rohe-
and Jugo- Slavs Crottians and Tyro-
lians. all under one command
stss' Avenged ut Isnssf.
. Behind Them in The revoit-swe pt
land for which they have been fight
ing the great racial crime that forged
and forEed-them together has
been avenged, the colossal unnatural
amalgamation of heterogeneous tribes
has been ripped to pieces by those
tribes themselves. Race hatred Is
aflame, and each of the nations in the
army returning home will find half a
dozen other nations awaiting them,
the defenders with contempt and
scorn
The homeland which these soldiers
have been told for four years they
were defending against the foreign
foe" has been turned into cauldron
of fratricide by those within. The
great evolution from the tyrannical OF
the minority to the democratic control
by the majority is under way.
The great polyglot population Of the
cutup Hapsburg empire is cropping Its
way toward freedom and the first step
h to assign a place in the sun to each
of the races. How that strugwle will
be affected by the flooding of the
country by hundreds Of thousands OF
soldiers. weary. hungry and bitterly
disappointed the next week will show
To whom shall the Austrian com
mander turn in authority for accept
ing Italys term. The monarchy &c
which he has fealty ard defence te
the death" is in hiding somewhere In
Hungary. afraid to face the rebels
at home and the mutineers ST the
front. But time Is pressing; disaster
stalks across the Venetian plains
across river after river and over the
mountains. hard on the heels of the
army without a country"
Meanwhile, rumor Ia revealing amid
the chaos Tho latest Is that thu
armistice has been signed. Only the
Austrian commander could sign II
and it can gettle for the present enl,
one thing-the escape Of the arm,
from utter destruction For what the
national council at Vienna rattle.
might not be sanctioned by Karolyi..
council at Budapest. not to speak Of
the Vulnerable other "independen1
states" arisen. or arising. overnight.
Bulletins Of vict0ry.
From Rome bulletins OF victory arr
coming in: not a word IL said Of Z
cessation Of hoetihties due to Austrian
surrender.
Udine. the Lille OF venetia, wher,
the Austrians last year captured tn,
Italian headquarters intact with un