BRITAIN AND ITALY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR.—For the last three weeks all England has been watching with feelings of intense sympathy and hope the progress of the great Italian offensive on the Carso and along the Isonzo gorge; we have followed in imagination the heroic advance of Italy's soldiers over the limestone waste of the Carso; we have watched them charge, with an ardour as great as that of their forefathers at Calatfimi, up the steep slopes of Monte Kuk. Our interest in these es ents is only increased by the knowledge that British naval unite at sea and British gunners on land are co-operating in the mighty attack upon Trieste—symbols of that profound goodwill which has endured for so ninny centuries between our two peoples. We hope that the Italian people are aware of the growing sympathy and admiration that their struggles and achievements are calling forth in this country, and we are concerned to find that the extent of this feeling is probably not appreciated in Italy owing to the undue importance which is there attached to the appearance of certain articles in oar Press, such as those recently printed in the New Europe. These articles, widely diffused by quotation in the Italian Press, give the impression that England views with suspicion and dislike all attempts of Italy to re-establish her ancient position in the Adriatic—an impression which is not only wholly erroneous, but conveys suggestions which would come with a particularly ill grace from a people to whom sea-power has always meant so much as it has to ourselves. We know that these opinions do not represent the general mind of our countrymen, and at this moment of Italy's supreme effort we feel that we owe it to ourselves to assure her of the unfailing sympathy with which we watch the dogged persistence, the noble sacrifices, by which she is consecrating, if ever nation did, her claim to redeem the unredeemed.—I ant, Sir, &c.,
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