Italy and Japan in the War

Italy and Japan in the War UY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER ITALY People arc often asking if Italy has really accomplished any- thing in the present war. Italy has adopted a strategy wholly different from that of Russia, though it must not he understood that Russia's rapid plunge into Austria and Germany, at the outset of the war, was not, under the peculiar conditions of those times, the very best thing to do. It gave the English and the French a chance to entrench themselves and hold the positions against the future German drive. Russia accomplished that purpose, and was driven hack later by the great drive through Galicia and Russian Poland. The situation was so grave in western Europe that the Russians had no time to fortify themselves as they went. In the case of Italy, hasty action was not demanded, so Italy has prepared herself to hold every foot of ground that she wins. Her position, at present, (October) in the Trentino is regarded as im- pregnable. That had first to be secured. Her next move was the great Corso plateau and with Gorizia. Recent dispatches announce that the plauteau of Corso is almost entirely in the hands of Italians, and that Gorizia's fall is immi- nent. When that military work has been accomplished, the Italians will immediately put themselves on the defensive there and make it cost the Austrians at least three men for every one in an attempt to move them. It is only a little more than twenty miles from Gorizia down to Trieste, and with the Corso plateau in the hands of the Italians, the fall of Trieste is certain. Italy's offensive movement could not, in the nature of things, be over the Alpine mountains of Trent. The cost to her in men would be too great. She could not make her advance very well along northwest of Gorizia. because that district of country was not favorable for an offensive movement. These two war "fronts had to be captured and fortified by the Italians before they could begin their offensive movement by way of Trieste over the'leveler country along the coast of Dalmatia. The Italian campaign, therefore, may be said to have been conducted in such a manner as to eliminate the success of an Austro-German drive such as that from which the Russians suffered. The Italian front is a very short one, but it is also an extremely difficult one, more

ITALY AND JAPAN IX THE WAR 131 difficult than the front of any other nation now at war with Ger- many and Austria. If the Italians now are in a position to take an offensive movement eastward across Dalmatia, they may threaten the \u- trians and Germans in the rear, in the effort of these central powers to make a drive across the Balkans. A million Italian soldiers along the Dalmatian front would require at least two million soldiers of the enemy to maintain the basis of their supply. The most wonderful tactics of the great war. the greatesl generalship and the war's greatest problems, really await their solution in the present so-called Austro-German drive across the Balkan mountains, on to the plains of Macedonia, and thence inl i Asia Minor which is really, after all, the greatest plum of the war. JAPAN Will Japanese soldiers fight in Europe? At the beginning of the war, Japan took part in running down the German vessels that were preying upon the commerce of the Allies. They wrested from ( iermany Kiaochau and with it the German influence in the great province of Chatong. These conflicts with Germany were easily understood, because they had directly to do with vital Japanese interests. There was a further question about which there has been frequent speculation, and that is the willingness of the Jap- anese and the consent of the Europeans to have that oriental power place its soldiers along side those of the Allies in the battle lines of Europe. It has seemed all along to the writer that the inevitable result of the Japanese recent international arrangement would lead to her participation in the European struggle on land. Whatever may be said about the great European war on the grounds of individual and state freedom, it is in a large measure, after all, a war of conquest, and Japan has her price. What is it? It is a price in the first instance that Russia must pay. Money indemnities cannot in the very nature of things be at all adequate for the victorious parties. Indemnities must come through ter- ritorial aggrandizement. Japan would be very glad to have Russia move back from the city of Harbin in Manchuria to the northern shores of the Amoor river. Japan would like conces sions in Vladivostock and perhaps the exclusive control of that port, though Russian Siberia and Russian claims in Mongolia make that port equally a necessity to Russia. If Russia must cede these large interests in eastern -ia. there must be in return a large compensation elsewhere as an induce- ment. That means that France and England would have to re- imburse Russia at Constantinople and in Asia Minor. So. indi-

132 IMPROVEMENT ERA rectly England and France would have to surrender some of the good things they have in anticipation, to Russia, in order to justify Russia in letting Japan have what she wants. It is a very large mathematical problem, and to save disputations after the war, it has to be worked out in detail, and it is a fairly good guess, when we venture the belief, that for some time the allied diplomats and those of Japan have had their slates and pencils and sponges occupied in hunting the answers to scores of problems to which the Japanese demands will naturally give rise. Heretofore the four allied powers have believed in their ability to cope with the situation, but behind that belief was a de- termination of the Allies that they would win even if Japan had to be called in. And it really looks today (October) as if Japan was in a good position to demand and receive her price. It's a big one, but really Japan has the goods to deliver. She has two million of perhaps the best fighting men in the world, well offi- cered, well equipped, that she is able to put on the fighting line within six months' time. God Reigns Above The deep-pealing thunder, that jars on the lattice; The ligthning enwrapping the earth like a shroud; The fierce breath of nature, that moans at the casement; The heavy, black clouds that o'ercast the blue sky; The sunlight, just peping above the brown hilltops; The cataract, leaping in wide sheets of spray; The fluttering of leaves in the breeze of the morning; The dashing of waves on the sea's sandy shore, — All tell me that God reigns above in the heavens, And governs the world he has shaped with his power. The mild-tempered zephyrs, that cool my hot forehead, The dewdrops that gleam on the roses at morn, The tread of the fawn, from her couch in the thicket, The hoot of the owl, from the turrets dull gloom, The moonlight that glides o'er the earth like a spectre, The stars sinking back in their orbits from view, The day following night, and the march of the seasons, The seas and the fountains, all fixed in their course, — All tell me that God reigns above in the heavens, And governs the world he has shaped with his power. LOGAN, UTAH Sarah E. Mitton