THE CLAIMS OF ITALY.
[To me Emma OF sue " Srecrtarox.") Sm.—My letter you kindly published under the heading "The Claims of Italy" in your Mate Of November 10th was written on October 27th, when no news °Umr national grief had yet arrived. Since then we have seen many things. And nobody in Italy will ever forget the long lines in khaki and grey-blue streaming down every railway, every road, every valley of the Alps on the first news of impending calamity. A great and black calamity it has been, and is. But some blue streaks will for ever remain—the- hearty, unreserved support of the Allies, the unfailing steadiness of our people in adversity, the prompt rally of our Army—the closening and tightening of both the military and the civil ranks immediately subsequent to the Black Days. Here is what the blinded soldiers wrote from their hospital to General Cadorna:— " Tell them [the soldiers at the front] that to-day is the first time we feel we, are blind. Tell them there is something worse than dying: it is being unable to revenge one's own sacrifices. Tell them we trust their valour to recover for us the only light which car: warm our lives—the joy of knowing that the piece of sky which last smiled to us is ours again."
Via Lamarmora ii. Torino.
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