LETTERS TO THE ED-ITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] ITALIAN TROOPS OF OCCUPATION.
LTO "THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR:"1 SIR,—Will you permit me to corroborate from my personal experience, which.-is perhaps exceptional, the testimony of Mrs. Re-Bartlett in her most interesting and valuable letter dated from Dalmatia on June 17th, with regard to the popularity of Italian troops of- occupation? I served as British liaison officer with the Italian Expeditionary Force in _Macedonia from the day that it landed in Salonika in August, 1916, till the day of its return to Italy just three years later, and again for some two months with the Italian force at Xenia towards the end of last year. I was with the Italians on two fronts in Macedonia, visited all their garrisons in Albania, accom- panied their Macedonian force in its victorious advance through Serbia, stayed with their occupying troops in every city and large village of Bulgaria, arid 'finally-had opportuni- ties of watching them in Turkey. Whether they were in Allied or in conquered territory their military administration everywhere 'was -remarkable for its sympathy and tact, while the conduct of their troops was distinguished among all the Allies for -kindness, courtesy, helpfulness, sobriety, industry, and discipline, for which qualities their popularity with the local populations was only, and -scarcely, equalled by that of the British .troops.
Will you allow me to give an instance of -their constructive talents? As soon as they arrived in any sector they started building bridges and making roads, as did all the other Allies, but with this difference, that whereas the French and British used highly-paid civilian labour, the Italian soldiers worked
unaided and left everywhere their mark in some distinctive beauty. There was one bridge on the Krum Balkan of which they were particularly proud, seeing that it was of wider span and cleaner line than is usual with military engineering. But the order came for their relief by British troops before the bridge was finished. The staff and the engineers were in despair. " The British will never carry out our design," they said. At their desire it was arranged that they should leave three hundred men for two months longer. Officers and men gladly gave up their period of rest in order that their bridge should not be spoilt, and this though the engineers were badly needed on their new front, and though the bridge was in a lonely Macedonian valley where never an Italian would again set -foot!
Needless to say, in Albania the roads and bridges built by the Italians will be .a memorial to their marvellous engineering for centuries to come. Even in remote Bulgarian villages such as Vidin and Lom Palanka on the Danube, or Dobric in the Dobrudja, some adornment or improvement will long testify to the beneficent effect of their few months' occupation. When last I left them amid the incredible filth of the lanes that serve for streets in Konia they were flooring a great school to serve as barracks and paving the portion of the street between their headquarters and their mess with beautifully cut stones.
When I was in Albania the Italians were building schools in every village, setting up model farms and restoring the great castles, such as Argyrokastro and Tepelene, originally built by engineers that Venice lent to her heroic ally Skanderheg, but wrecked as far as possible in 1913 by the retreating Greeks, a nation which seems to have a genius for destruction as great as that of the Italians for improvement.
Schools the Italians made also in the Cerna Loop, at Brad, Negotin and Tepavci, which villages they also helped to rebuild, instructing the savage population In matters of hygiene and comfort as well as in domestic building. English ladies of the Serbian Relief Fund fed the children in the schools and Serbian teachers taught. Then Marshal Miele would come over and inspect the work and share the Italian mess. For these were days in which the Serbs, officers and men .alike, could find nothing too good to say of the Italians. Italy and Serbia were "sister nations," sharing the Adriatic, and their friendship should be eternal, so they swore. In a quarrel that took place in Salonika between French and Italian soldiers the Serbs rushed in to help the latter, shouting "Buoni Italiani " At the time of the great advance the Crown Prince urged on the French Command that the Italians should be allowed to go forward and enter Belgrade with his own Serbians. Had only this wise project been permitted how different might have been the sequel! But the Italians were sent into Bulgaria instead.
In Bulgaria, as afterwards in Asia Minor, the Italians made themselves so popular that the fickle Serbs and the hostile Greeks declared they were forming a political entente with that discredited Power. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Italian headquarters was officially far more " correct" in eschewing anything like fraternisation •than • almost any other of the Allied authorities. But when the Italians went away, after eight months without one " inci- lent," the Bulger crowd had to be kept back from the railway; !flowers were thrown and bands were played in spite of the strictest orders against demonstration. "Italy is a boot," the Bulgars said, referring to the shape of her peninsula, " but we have found that her tread is very My-like!"
Everywhere, in Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, the Italian hospitals and dispensaries were always, at all hours, at the service of the sick civilians, and the doctors refused all .payment or reward. Is it possible that these semi-civilized ,peoples should not be grateful? Many a Bulger said to me: "After the Germans with their arrogance and brutality, the Italians have shown us what a civilized race is really like! "
May I add that in all these three and a-half years I never saw a drunken Italian soldier? The Italian soldiers were not smart, and did not impress the more punctil- ious British officer favourably at first sight. But their equipment was perhaps more practical than that of any other army, and their rations, though frugal, were better cooked and better chosen. They had least sickness in their ranks. Their staff was entirely frank in its dealing with our Headquarters, and all units extraordinarily hospit- able and generous. In the East, at any rate, their relations with the British were most cordial. All the more pity, Sir, is -it if, led by a tissue of misrepresentation, we cast wantonly away our precious friendship with this most civilized, progres- sive, and warm-hearted race! With apologies for the length of my letter, and pleading my concern as its excuse, I am, Sir,
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