In Nov. 1917, after the Caporetto disaster, Diaz succeeded Cadorna as chief of the general staff. He was confronted with a very serious situation, but he brought to bear upon it all the needful understanding and resolution. Under his direction the battle front was successfully reconstituted, and the work of re- organizing the Italian army was carried out. At the instigation, and under the close personal supervision, of Diaz much was done to improve conditions for the soldiers at the front and for their families at home. Under his command the double attack of Boroevich and Conrad was broken up at the battle of the Piave (June 1918) and the armies of the Dual Monarchy were destroyed by the battle of Vittorio Veneto (Oct.-Nov. 1918). For his services Diaz received the collar of the Annunziata, the highest Italian order. In Nov. 1919 he was nominated army general and retired from his position as chief of staff, and later, upon the reorganization of the army and Ministry of War, he was appointed vice-president of the Army Council. He also became a Senator and in 1919 he received the freedom of the City of London.
As a division and corps commander Diaz displayed high military qualities. His position as chief of the general staff was rendered delicate by the fact that the British and French divi- sions which were sent to Italy after Caporetto were not at first placed directly under his command, and his personal qualities were specially adapted to render collaboration easy. Diaz has been criticized for excess of caution in delaying his final attack upon the Austro-Hungarian armies. It is possible, though by no means certain, that he might have attacked with success sooner. But an earlier victory might very well have been less complete, and anything less than complete victory would not have served the cause of Italy or of the Allies.
DIAZ, PORFIRIO (1830–1915), president of the republic of Mexico (see 8.172), died in Paris July 2 1915. In April 1910 he was elected president for the eighth time, but as the result of widespread opposition to what was regarded as a prolonged dictatorship, a revolution broke out the following Nov., headed by Francisco I. Madero. Because of his age the President could not head his army personally, and in May 1911 was forced to resign. With his family he went to Spain, and thereafter until his death lived in various European capitals.
DICEY, EDWARD (1832–1911), English writer (see 8.178), died in London July 7 1911.
DIERX, LEON (1838–1912), French poet (see 8.210), died in Paris June n 1912. His Poesies Posthumes appeared in 1913.
DIESEL, RUDOLF (1857–1913), German engineer, was the inventor of the Diesel oil-engine (see INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES), the possibilities of which, however, had hardly been realized till after his untimely death. He fell overboard the Antwerp-Harwich mail steamer on Sept. 30 1913, and was drowned.
DIGGLE, JOHN WILLIAM (1847–1920), English divine, was born at Strawberry Hill, Pendleton, March 2 1847. He was educated at Manchester grammar school and Merton College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1870, being ordained in 1871. After many years of energetic work in various parishes he was in 1892 made examining-chaplain to the Bishop of Carlisle, Dr. Bardsley. Four years later he became archdeacon of Westmorland and canon residentiary of Carlisle. In 1902 he became rector of St. Martin's, Birmingham, in 1903 was made archdeacon of Birmingham, and in 1905 became Bishop of Carlisle, where his energy and industry brought him a great reputation. He died at Rose Castle, Carlisle, March 24 1920.
DIGGLE, JOSEPH ROBERT (1849–1917), English educationalist, was born in Lanes. May 12 1849. He was educated at Manchester grammar school and Wadham College, Oxford. He took orders, but resolved later to devote himself to public work. In 1879 he was elected for the Marylebone division to the London school board, on which he remained until 1897, being chairman from 1885 till 1894. Diggle was an active member of many committees for the betterment of the conditions of the working classes, and published Pleas for Better Administration upon the London School Board (1881 and 1885). He died at Ox- ford Jan. 16 1917.
DILKE, SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH, 2nd Bart. (1843–1911), English statesman (see 8.271), died in London Jan. 26 1911, and was succeeded by his son, Charles Wentworth Dilke (1874–1918), who died in London Dec. 7 1918. The baronetcy went to Sir Fisher Wentworth Dilke (b. 1877), a cousin of the 3rd Bart.
DILLON, JOHN (1851–), Irish Nationalist politician (see 8.273). The Irish members endeavoured unsuccessfully to censure the conduct of the Speaker in regard to the suspension of Mr. Dillon on March 20 1902. He was prominent that year in Parliament in his attacks on the Government for the revival of the Crimes Act, and in the following year he helped forward Mr. Wyndham's Land Purchase Act. For several subsequent years he played a comparatively subordinate part both in Ireland and in Parliament; but in 1909 he appeared as a leading apologist of cattle-driving, telling the House of Commons that the grazing system in Ireland had become an abomination. He aided the parliamentary progress of the Home Rule bill mainly by a judicious silence. In the years before the World War he had been very critical both of the increased naval preparations, which he said were the result of a bogus naval scare, and of Sir Edward Grey's policy in Egypt and Morocco. But he followed his leader, Mr. Redmond, in urging Ireland to take her share in the war against Germany, and spoke at the meeting in the Dublin Mansion House on Sept. 25 1914, when the platform was occupied by the Lord Mayor, the Lord Lieutenant, Mr. Asquith (Prime Minister), the Chief Secretary, and Mr. Redmond. In Parlia- ment, however, he showed himself opposed to compulsory service and the setting up of a Munitions department; and after the Dublin rebellion he said he was proud of the rebels, accused the Government of washing out the word Nationalist in a sea of blood, and declared that Sir John Maxwell's system of military rule had done more to spread disaffection in Ireland than all the organizers of Sinn Fein. He did not show himself very sym- pathetic or hopeful in regard to the various suggestions of Mr. Lloyd George for settling the Irish question. In July 1918, as Mr. Redmond's successor in the leadership of his party, he brought forward a motion that the Irish policy of the Government was inconsistent with the principles for which the Allies were carrying on the war, advised calling in President Wilson to settle the question, and bitterly denounced what he called the outrageous coercive system in force in Ireland. But the violence of his language did not save him from the vengeance of Sinn Fein who now dominated that country; he, along with almost the whole of the Constitutional Nationalist party, lost his seat at the general election of Dec. 1918.
DINANT, Belgium (see 8.274). The town was almost completely destroyed at the beginning of the World War by German forces invading Belgium, who here endeavoured to force the passage of the Meuse, the left bank of which was held by the French. On Aug. 23 1914, the Germans rushed the town, and, on the pretext that the civil population had fired on them, they set fire to the town and shot numbers of the inhabitants en masse. In all 665 persons, or about one-tenth of the total pop., were massacred, among them being 71 women and 39 infants, many of the latter only a few weeks old. Of 1,653 houses only about 600 remained. A minute inquiry into the charge, held subsequently, completely established the innocence of the inhabitants. The rebuilding of the town was being actively pursued in 1921.
DINES, WILLIAM HENRY (1855–), English meteorologist, was born in 1855, the son of G. Dines, also a meteorologist. He was educated at Woodcote House school, Windlesham, and afterwards entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he obtained a first-class in the mathematical tripos in 1881. He afterwards carried out some investigations for the Royal Meteorological Society on the subject of wind forces, and in connexion with this work designed the Dines pressure-tube anemometer. In 1901 he commenced researches into the problems of the upper air, and designed or perfected several instruments for use with kites, as well as a form of the Hargreaves box-kite, which proved of great value. In 1905 he was appointed by the Meteorological Office director of experiments in connexion with the investigation
