And most of the things in question which have occurred have served to restore and augment the confidence of the Italians in their position. A new 2d Army has taken the place of the old, annihilated in the Capporetto campaign. All the lost guns have been replaced and new heavies added. Revolution is, at any moment, expected to break out in Austria-Hungary, while the Congress of Jugoslavs in Rome on April 9-11 has secured the adhesion to the Allies of the subjects of the Hapsburgs and enabled the Italian Government to make use of them as a fighting force. There are now believed to be no German divisions on the Italian front, where the entire enemy strength, not measurably increased since the snows have disappeared in the north, consists of 800 Austro-Hungarian battalions, or less than 1,000,000 men.
But what has promoted most satisfaction in the Italian Government and people was the decree issued by the Interallied Supreme Council of War at Abbéville on May 3, giving General Foch authority to include the Italian front under his supreme command, that front thereby becoming the right wing of the allied battle line in Europe—now "one army, one front, and one supreme command."
That is the way Bonaparte fought his victorious battles in the days of the First Republic, alternately on the Rhine and the Adige. Moreau could not win without Bonaparte, nor Bonaparte without Moreau, while Carnot, in the centre, was the vehicle of transit.
Before the snows made manoeuvres impossible the Italians had closed two gates which threatened the plains of Veneto from the north—one at the junction of the front with the Piave, one at the angle of the Frenzela Torrent and the Brenta River.
Gunfire had been steadily augmenting on the front when, on May 10, they closed another, and on May 15 still another. The first of these was the capture of Monte Corno, which commanded the part up the Vallarsa, the second was a partial recovery of Monte Asolone, between the Brenta and the Piave, sufficient to cover the path up the Val San Lorenzo. Both mountains are really plateaus of about two square miles area each, whose irregular summits the enemy had strongly fortified in order to clear the valleys below. In both places subsequent Austrian counterattacks were broken up.
Meanwhile, Italian aircraft dominate from above. On May 14 the enemy lost eleven airplanes with no losses to the Italians and the British, who were assisting them.
Premier Lloyd George on German Autocracy
Premier Lloyd George wrote the following preface for a volume containing extracts from speeches he delivered during the war:
I have never believed that the war would be a short war, or that in some mysterious way, by negotiation or compromise, we would free Europe from the malignant military autocracy which is endeavoring to trample it into submission and moral death. I have always believed that the machine which has established its despotic control over the minds and the bodies of its victims and then organized and driven them to slaughter in order to extend that control over the rest of the world, would only be destroyed if the free peoples proved themselves strong and steadfast enough to defeat its attempt in arms. The events of the last few weeks must have made it plain to every thinking man that there is no longer room for compromise between the ideals for which we and our enemies stood. Democracy and autocracy have come to death grips. One or the other will fasten its hold on mankind. It is a clear realization of this issue which will be our strength in the trials to come. I have no doubt that freedom will triumph. But whether it will triumph soon or late, after a final supreme effort in the next few months or a long-drawn agony, depends on the vigor and self-sacrifice with which the children of liberty, and especially those behind the lines, dedicate themselves to the struggle. There is no time for ease or delay or debate. The call is imperative. The choice is clear. It is for each free citizen to do his part.