gns of abatement, General Cadorna, in undertaking operations in
other sectors of the front than the Trentino, was undoubtedly
influenced by motives similar to those guiding his opponents. He,
too, hoped to impress his adversary sufficiently by minor operations
in sectors unconnected with the Trentino, to reduce their strength
there.

Considerable light is thrown upon the organization of the Italian
army, which made it possible to carry on successfully these
operations, in the following article from the pen of the special
correspondent of the London "Times":

"I have been allowed to visit the offices of the general staff at army
headquarters and those of the administrative services at another point
within the war zone. This is not a favorable moment for describing how
the army machinery works; but there is no harm done in saying that all
these services appear to run smoothly, have good men at their head,
and produce good results.

"I was particularly struck by the maps turned out. They do great
credit to the Military Geographical Institute at Florence, and to the
officers at headquarters who revise the maps as new information pours
in. All the frontiers have been well surveyed and mapped on scales of
1:25,000, 1:50,000, 1:100,000, and 1:200,000. These maps are very
clear and good. I like best the 1:100,000, which is issued to all
officers, and on which operation orders are based. The photographs are
also very fine, and the panoramas excellent, while the airmen's
photographs, and the plans compiled from them, are quite in the front
rank.

"The service of information at headquarters also appears to me to be
good. There are more constant changes in all the Italian staffs than
we should consider desirable, and officers pass very rapidly from one
employment to another, but in spite of this practice the information
is well kept up, and the knowledge of the enemy's dispositions is up
to standard, considering the extraordinary difficulty of following the
really quite chaotic organization of the Austro-Hungarian forces.

"I am not sure that I like very much the liaison system in Italy. The
comparatively young officers intrusted with it report direct to army
headquarters, and on their reports the communiques are usually based.
These officers remind us of the _missi dominici_ of the great Moltke,
but on the whole I confess that the system does not appeal to me very
much.

"All the rearward services of the army are united un