ublic: First, the status of Germany in
regard to Italy declaring war against Austria-Hungary, arraying
herself on the side of the Entente powers, and pledging herself, in
turn, as each of them had done, not to make a separate peace with the
enemy, and, second, the apparent weakness of the Austrian defensive in
the Trentino and on the eastern frontier of Venetia.

Diplomatic relations between Rome and Berlin have been severed, but
neither Chancellery has yet (June 23) found the other guilty of an
aggression sufficiently grave to warrant a declaration of war. There
is nothing astonishing in this situation. A similar situation obtained
between Paris and Vienna and London and Vienna long after a state of
war existed between Germany and Russia, France, and England.

The Italian plan of campaign apparently consists (1) in neutralizing
the Trentino by capturing or "covering" her defenses and cutting her
two lines of communication with Austria proper--the railway which runs
south from Innsbruck and that which runs southwest from Vienna and
joins the former at Franzensfeste, and (2) in a movement in force from
the eastern frontier, with Trieste captured or "covered" on the right
flank, in the direction of the Austrian fortress of Klagenfurt and
Vienna, only 170 miles northeast from the present base of
operations--a distance equal to that from New York City to Cape Cod.

The initial weakness of the Austrian defensive, which will doubtless
be strengthened as troops can be spared from the seat of war in
Galicia, is due to the fact that the invaded regions are normally
defended by the Fourteenth and Third Army Corps, which were, in
August, sent with two reserve corps to defend the Austrian line in
Galicia. To fill the casualties in these corps the drain on the
population has been great, so that when Italy began her invasion the
defenses of the country were chiefly in the hands of the hastily
mobilized youths below the military age of 19 and men above the
military age of 42.

During the last six months, when Vienna gradually came to realize that
war with Italy was inevitable, the Austro-Hungarian military
authorities enrolled a new army of men who had already seen military
service, but, for various reasons, had not been availed of in the
present war. They were men of an unusually high mental and physical
standard and had received additional training under German officers.
Their ages were from 35 to 40, and they numbered from 700,