Proof of this organized thieving which was supported by the enemy authorities, was obtained not merely from writings and conversations with scattered individuals but from reports in enemy newspapers. The _Gazette_ of Veneto which was printed at Udine for the Austrian government published the following notice, “The Administration of the Austro-Hungarian Army has ordered the requisitioning of metals in the occupied regions, to meet the army’s demands for metals. Church bells, roofs of copper or lead, lightning rods and railings will be requisitioned.” A communication received by our command during the first days of our retreat to the Piave said, “At Graz, and at Vienna, a trade in Italian products has been begun. Besides the small quantities of rice, oil, and lemons carried by soldiers on leave and bargained for at the stations by Jewish speculators, rice is beginning to arrive at Graz in important quantities. The authorities have been asked to pass measures to prevent speculation with this rice, and to reserve it for the use of the sick and for children.” The children and the sick of the invaded territories were left without these necessary articles of food. From scattered phrases found in documents, or overheard in conversations with soldiers and officer prisoners, I gathered a general notion of the carefree, corrupt life led by the troops in the invaded regions. A few notes from the diary of the Czech officer who had deserted follow: “Lieutenant Skebek and an employee got drunk in a villa at Pelos with wine requisitioned at Auronzo and later devastated a villa. At Belluno the gendarmes were supposed to guard the wine cellars; but in a moment there gathered before the house a mob of soldiers with pails, basins, and other vessels. “The artillery officers have organized nightly orgies in a villa near Feltre; there were more than enough women. “Almost all the horses have diarrhœa because they have eaten too much.” The same spectacle of gluttony and drunkenness at the expense of our people, is repeated in the diary of the Austrian lieutenant of the second battalion of the 47th infantry who has already been mentioned. “December 2.—Visited the Command of the Regiment. Had breakfast with the commander of the battalion. We drank much excellent wine. At three in the afternoon, the officers of the command of the regiment left, hilarious from the wine. The officers of the 16th company and others withdrew singing, and they would have continued their orgy at my house had I not made all the wines and liquors disappear.” An Italian soldier and an officer, prisoners escaped from the hands of the Austrians, reported the following: