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Show RED CROSS DOING STIRRING WORK Italian Soldiers Enthused by Spirit of American Relief Sent to Italy. HEADQUARTERS ITALIAN ARMY Tune 4. (i (jrr, pondenee of the Associated As-sociated Press.) Throughout Italy , .nd particularly in this section near the fighting front, the work of Amer lean relief accomplished by American j Re(r Cross workers has served as a medium for stirring the spirit of resistance re-sistance among the people and Rold-lers. Rold-lers. It hns contributed toward kepin them heartened lor the trials of the war and lotting them know that America Amer-ica was united uith them In it it is a work going on all over Italy, bin here near the front it deal- with actual fighting conditions, in a bell of country lying just back or the fighting lino, with masses of troops bllletted in towns, villages and country districts, and a vast wave of refugees Swept south and west from (he invaded regions, reg-ions, settling down with all their misery mis-ery like a swarm of locusts on the lo eal communities. In such a section Ihe work Is omo-thlng omo-thlng more than one of relief, lor while $200 000 has been distributed in this one sor t ion yet the main purpose has been to stimulate and hearten the spirit of tho peasantry, to arouse their ardor and support for the men on ihe fighting lino, and to let them know-that know-that America and all her resources aro with thorn lo tho end. Those provinces of Trevlso. Venetla and Padua ho just back of the Plave and mountain fighting fronts Trevlso proince is on tho border lin?. with half Its communes occupied bv the enemy and half by the Italians." and tho Plare running between the two severed parts of the province. Every one of the 38 Trevlse communes remaining re-maining under Italian control have been visited by the American Red Cross workers, the 103 communes of Padua province have been similarly visited; and some 75 communes in Venetla Ve-netla province Stirring Scenes Witnessed. Stirring scenes have been witnessed in these country districts as the American Amer-ican workers have carried on their work, under the general direction of Captain Thwaits. in charge of civilian retiei in the war zone. At Esie. for example, a public holiday as decreed the town was placarded with posters announcing that ' the Americans are corning," school children and the mayor gave a dinner with speeches. The same wave of appreciation and enthusiasm has spread everywhere, until the whole region rings with what the Americans are doing. The tour today lay due north due to tho very margin of the flehtlng country, coun-try, and one could see side by side the stir of intense military preparation, I the spring awakening of a great agricultural ag-ricultural region, and the squalid mls-I mls-I ery of the unfortunate mass swept out jof the invaded region and settled down here unablo to g 1 any further. On the right was the Plav$ ri?or with tho de fenses on the heights of Asole and the Montello region, and ahead was the snow -covered peaks of Mount Grappa jand its line of mountain defenses stretching west to the Brenta river. Preparation on Every Hand. The signs of military preparation 'and defense were on every hand, even at this distance ten or fifteen milos ! back of the actual fighting lino, for everything is prepared ahead for the possible eventuality of tho conflict surging down into this peaceful plain.1 Squads of army engineers were at all the bridgos, digging deep pits f or j mines to blow up these structures and block the advance of the enemy. Sentinels were on guard every hun-dred hun-dred feet along the Brenta canal guarding this precious artery of com-j municatlon, Across (he fields now trenches were being dug up. so that (he farm country was gradually taking! on the aspect of an armed camp. Barb- ! ed wire entanglements criss-crossed! the fields. Some of the emplacements for batteries and machine-guns looked very solid and might well serve as ai permanent fortification. Soldiers' marched along the roads in endless lines, with great parks of horses, mules, ammunition and supplies and all the village streets were thick with' soldiers and the mixture of ragged and Impoverished refugees At all the places visited there wan the some pro- j cedure, the important officials and citizens cit-izens of the town were gathered lor a conference on the community s needs ihe mayor, assessor, head school teacher, and the parish priest They furnished the exact statistics of families famil-ies in need, conducting the party to the chief centers of distress when this was possible, and then tho Red Cross started them on a plan of relief work, 'with a substantial contribution according ac-cording to tho iv ed "It is not only the donation that counts," explained Captain Thwalts, "for that is only a token of the solidarity soli-darity of Italy and the United States, and an assurance to your poopie and soldiers that America i with them to the end. We want it to be a contribution contribu-tion t sfronethon ihe spirit of resistance resist-ance of every soldier and every work er behind the lines " |