On the Isonzo front the Italian commander, General Cadorna, launched a great offensive while the British were active in Flanders and by August 23 had broken through the whole Austrian line, capturing the town of Selo, which was the pivot of the Austrian defense, and considered impregnable, and inflicting upon the enemy, in this eleventh battle of the Isonzo, the greatest losses he had sustained since the capture of Goritz. More than 13,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners were captured during the battle, with thirty guns, and all counter-attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. The whole Selo line fell before the heroic onslaught of the Italians, and the loss of this important position was a serious blow to the Austrians. On August 22 Italian warships were showering shells on Trieste, the big Austrian port on the Adriatic which was the objective of the Italian campaign. HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN! "In the welter of the conflict an emperor of Austria-Hungary has died, full of years and of sorrow, a czar of Russia has stepped from his throne, and a king of Greece has lost his crown," said a well-known publicist, reviewing the war up to this time. "Not one of the prime ministers or ministers of foreign affairs who conducted the diplomatic maneuvers preceding of immediately following the beginning of the war in the six most important countries of Europe is still in power. In Russia, Goremykin and Sazonoff are forgotten behind a line of successors, equally unstable. In France, Delcassé left the foreign office and Viviani ceased to head the cabinet, following the collapse of Serbia in the second autumn of the war. "The tragedy of Roumania a year later contributed to the overthrow of Asquith and his foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, in Great Britain. San Giuliano of the Italian foreign office and Salandra, the prime minister, have passed. Count Berchtold, foreign minister of Austria-Hungary in 1914 (the empire has no prime minister), has passed into oblivion, while Von Jagow gave up the management of Germany's foreign affairs last autumn. Von Bethmann-Hollweg, the last of the group to lose his grip, has just gone down, despite the fact that he was not responsible to any elective body. "Ministers of war in the belligerent countries have not been more stable. Kerensky follows a long procession in Russia. France has had four war ministers from Millerand to Painlevé, inclusive, while Lord Kitchener, organizer of Great Britain's most marvelous war achievement, a volunteer army of some 4,000,000 men, sleeps below the waters of the North Sea.