Chapter I: Preface

As the reader will discover for himself, I have no pretensions to pose as a Military Expert. This book is the result of a few hasty impressions gathered over a period which, with all its minor inconveniences and little daily worries, I look back upon as among the happiest and best filled of a somewhat varied career. I have not yielded to the temptation to be interesting at the expense of veracity; to that fact the indulgent reader will, I trust, attribute many of the dull pages. If in the latter half of the book I have laid particular stress on the operations leading up to and culminating in the capture of Gorizia, I hope I may be forgiven, as I had the good luck to be the only foreign correspondent on the spot at these scenes of History-making. In my dedication I have paid a humble tribute to the many kindnesses I received at the hands of the Military Authorities, from His Excellency General Cadorna downwards. I can only repeat it here.

JULIUS M. PRICE.

21, Golden Square,
London, W.

_January, 1917._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: PAGE

Marching orders—I leave for Rome—Paris via Folkestone and Boulogne
in war time—My campaigning kit—The war-correspondent’s list—Quaint
item—Travelling “light”—A box of choice Havanas—Boulogne to
Paris; well-intentioned ladies and their “Woodbines”—The one and
only cigarette—Paris to Turin—Curious order on train—Method and
prescience—Few soldiers on route—Arrival in Rome—A cheap room—No
sign of excitement in streets—23rd May—Excitability of the Italian
no longer noticeable—Rome unruffled—The declaration of war—On the
Corso Umberto that evening—The Café Aragno—National stoicism—The
DAY—Business as usual—The general mobilisation—A triumph of
organization—At the War Office 3