Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-12-15
DEVASTATED WAR
AREAS IN ITALY
BEING RESTORED
People BusiIy Engaged on
Work of Rehabilitation;
Stricken Areas Being Made
Fit for Habitation.
tBy Tho Associated Pressl

Ioulti Dec. I4.-lHe American
ambassador, Robert Underwood
Johnson, who has returned from a
visit to the Piaye, Isonzo and Ash
ago sectors of the Italian war front.
including much of the devastated
region, declares that the Italians
are progressing well in their ef-
forts to make these war areas again
fit for habitation.
doubt whether any other re-
zion of the war would make a bet
ter showing of recupeEation," said
MIR. johnson to the Associated
Press correspondent.
In April l saw the devastated
REGIONS of France from Chateau
Thierry to Rheims, an awful sight
which may be commended to those
who are willing to take the risk
Of another great war. Save for a
few barracks and isolated pieces
of repair little had been done to
rebuild.
Towns Are Being Rebuilt.
Today in the midst of equal
devastation there is hardly town
in Italy in which 20 per cent of the
houses have not been renewed or
repaired for occupancy, and the
proportion Is usually from SO to
65 per cent. The refugees, most
of them still living in the govern
ment barracks, are hard at work.
New houses on handsome Italian
models are going up every week.
The second story may have been
destroyed, but If the first has walls
1t is rooted and made habitable for
the time.
THE courage and resourceful-
ness of war time was not greater
than Is that of peace, and both call
for the admiration of the world.
Ihls needs TO be accumulated be-
cause Italy has had so much to
contend with; first, in the failure
or this years crops of wheat and
corn; next, from the cloudbursts
and floods; and, third, from the
disturbing industrial conditions.
fortunately, the season has been
good for building and for every
man in Friule seems to have be-
come carpenter or mason. Still,
this region, with all the aid to re-
construction that the government
~"A SiNVB LdGtS "lIlleE Oh nara
ship and severe cold.
"The people of Trieste are not
only brave and Industrious, but
gentle and courteous, and like most
Italians, they respond to treat
ment. We saw no evidence of cur
rent violence. which indeed is not
directed against travellers, but Isl
either industrial or political, and
is local."
The machinery for silk and cot
ton manufacture was all carried
off by the Austrians.
Most OF the inhabitants have
had to begin at the bottom, but
they are used to the conflict of no ,
tire, and with fairly normal con-
ditions and a good harvest or two
the region will be we'll restored.
Italians Held long Front.
Ambassador Johnson compared |
the Italian battlefield on the Carso |
with the fields of famous battles
of the American civil war. and de- |
clared that nothing at Gettysburg
or Bloody Angle was more difficult |
than the assault by which the Ital-
ians won Podgora, the precipice |
200 feet high, which commanded |
Gorilla, and with it that important
town. "The Devils Den on the
union left at Gettysburg is not to /
be mentioned with these Bad
Lands that form so strong de-
Tense of Trieste" he added.
Let 1t not be forgotten that the
Italians held a front of 400 miles:
that they lost half a million killed
and a million and a half wounded,
and they had held a million and a
half OF Austrlans from reinforcing
the western line