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Show American General and Aide I to Report Italian Situation I ITALIAN HEADQUARTERS IN NORTHERN ITALY, Wednesday, Nor. 28. (By the Associated Press.) Brigadier Brig-adier General Schriven of the United States army, accompanied by an aido and the American military attache at Rome, has arrived at headquarters to study the Italian situation and make a series of reports to the American government. gov-ernment. Major G. M. P. Murphy, head of the American Red Cross In Europe, is also here to co-ordinate the work of his organization. General Schriven was received by King Victor Era-manual, Era-manual, who invited him to dinner, where the situation was discussed at length. Reports from the front show that the enemy is still persistent but that little is left of his former vigor of at- tack and he is resorting to the old device of cunning. The Germans have posted -placards in Italian, reading: "Italians, we have crossed the defenses de-fenses of the Piave. Your defense is useless. Let us pass without further bloodshed. We shall be In VIcenza in three days." v In reply to this, Italian soldiers posted a placard in German, reading: "You will never pass." An eminent American military authority summarized the situation In this way: "While the danger is not yet over, nevertheless it seems to mo from a military viewpoint that the enemy cannot pass, being confronted by the combined Italian! British and French forces." His chief military reason for this ( view is that the enemy no longer has 1 1 bis lines of communication freely open to the rear as the winter 13 breaking his communications' in tho north and interrupting, If not destroy ing them, to the east. Therefore, h j believes, the enemy has reached tho maximum and must decline from now -H on, while the Italians and their allies have all their communications from yM the west and south open and can aug- j ment their forces from now on. Con- scquently It appears to this American as though the enemy had failed in his main project of breaking through into i fl the heart of Italy. The foregoing, in addition to giving the military viewpoint, probably ac-cords ac-cords with other high opinion. |