THOMAS NELSON PAGE
ITALY AND
THE WORLD WAR
Footnotes
1. Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, chapter on the Renaissance.
2. Sixty-.six invasions, all successful save nine or ten, have been made during Italy's history.
3. From the Congress of Vienna to the War of 1814 (Ch. Signobos, Libr. A. Colin, Paris), p. 9.
4. Austria (which had lost its ancient provinces in Belgium now thrown in with Holland as part of the Low Countries, but took Salzburg) received again Venetia, with Parma as a gift for life to Napoleon's Austrian Empress, Maria Louisa; the Dukes of Parma taking over, in exchange, meanwhile, Lucca, which, after the death of the Empress, was to become a part of Tuscany. Genoa went to Piedmont, Savoy having been left to France; Naples went back to the Bourbons. The Papal States were, of course, left to the Papacy, and the old system was restored, with the Inquisition revived; Jesuits recalled, and civil service limited to priests.
5. The Liberation of Italy, Ctsse Cesaresco-Martinengo.
6. In 1848 (March 12), even in Vienna, representatives from the Austrian Parliament rose against autocracy as represented by the Emperor Ferdinand and Metternich, who for thirty-five years had ruled with iron hand the destinies of central Europe. Metternich was driven out. A few months later Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew, Francis Joseph, who became known in Italy later, from his ruthlessness, as the "Emperor of the Hangmen," and whose long reign saw the decline of the Austrian Empire and opened the way for its disappearance not only from the position of dictator of the destinies of subject peoples, but its disappearance from the map of Europe.
7. The Bishop of Imola's elevation to the Holy See was possibly hurried forward to prevent Austria's pronouncing on the subject. It is certain that he was at the time the most advanced and liberal man who in modern times has become Pope. His change later was a proof that possibly circumstances, possibly the Constitution of the Roman Church and hierarchy, were too strong for him; possibly that a liberal Pope, as Metternich said, was a " contradiction in terms," at least so long as the claim of papal Temporal sovereignty is asserted, The Roman Church is possibly the most conservative organization on earth. When, through its head, it asserts Temporal power it finds itself in opposition to the forces of progress moving steadily forward. The result could hardly have been more disastrous. Beginning his pontificate amid the acclaims of the entire people of Rome and doubtless with every desire to serve his people to the best of his ability, he found himself, as time passed, confronted by conditions beyond his control, and was forced by his people to grant a constitution, liberal beyond any dream that he had ever had. So opposed was it to all that his advisers and chief supporters held, that after a fruitless effort to stem the tide he fled from Rome in disguise, and in the sequel returned supported by foreign power that had made war on his people, and thenceforth he maintained himself only with foreign bayonets.
Madame Waddington tells of one of the Roman princes saying to her that Pius IX was the most liberal ruler he ever knew.
8. An English ship present, commanded by Captain Marriat, it is said, rendered incidental aid to the work of disembarkation by lying too close to the ships of the expedition for the latter to be fired on.
9. The Hapsburg Monarchy (Steed), p. 216.
10. The Hapsburg Monarchy, p. 217, note 2.
11. Memoirs of Francis Crispi, II, p. 117.
12. The published articles read as follows:
Article I.-The High Contracting Parties mutually promise to remain on terms of peace and friendship, and that they will not enter into any alliance or engagement directed against one of their States.
They pledge themselves to undertake an exchange of views regarding all general and political questions which may present themselves, and promise furthermore their mutual assistance, commensurate with their individual interests.
Article III.-In case one or two of the High. Contracting Parties, without direct provocation on their part, should be attacked by one or more Great Powers not signatory of the present Treaty and should become involved in a war with them, the causa foederis would arise simultaneously for all the High Contracting Parties.
Article IV.-In case a Great Power not signatory of the present Treaty should threaten the State security of one of the High Contracting Parties, and in case the threatened party should thereby be compelled to declare war against that Great Party, the two other Contracting Paxties engage themselves to maintain benevolent neutrality toward their ally. Each of them reserves its right, in this case, to take part in the war if it thinks fit in order to make common cause with its ally.
Article VII.---Austria-Hungary and Italy, being desirous solely that the territorial status quo in the near East be maintained as much as possible, pledge themselves to exert their influence to prevent all territorial modification which may prove detrimental to one or the other of the Powers signatory of this Treaty. To that end they shall communicate to one another all such information as may be suitable for their mutual enlightenment, concerning their own dispositions as well as those of other Powers.
Should, however, the status quo in the regions of the Balkans, or of the Turkish coasts and islands in the Adriatic and AEgean Seas, in the course of events become impossible; and should Austria-Hungary or Italy be placed under the necessity, either by the action of a third Power or otherwise, to modify that status quo by a temporary or permanent occupation on their part, such occupation shall take place only after a previous agreement has been made between the two Powers, based on the principle of reciprocal compensation for all advantages, territorial or otherwise, which either of them may obtain beyond the present status quo, a compensation which shall satisfy the legitimate interests and aspirations of both Parties.
13. Tardieu, France and the Alliances, p. 167.
14. Prince Henckel of Donnersmarck.
15. Tardieu, France and the Alliances, pp. 183-4.
16. Speech, in Italian Senate.
17. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy, p. 243. Tardieu, La Conference d'Algeciras, pp. 64, 65; 103, note 2; 173, 235, 249-251, 334-5, 387-8, 404, 446.
18. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy, pp. 243-263.
19. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy, p. 256.
20. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy, p. 245.
21. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy.
22. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy, p. 254.
23. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy, pp. 259-260.
24. Tittoni, Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy, pp. 9-10.
25. Tittoni, Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy, pp. 16-18.
26. Steed, Hapsburg Monarchy, p. 268; Tittoni, Italy's Foreign Policy.
27. Carnovale, Why Italy Entered Into the Great War, 2d Part.
28. The noted Italian Director of Antiquities, Giacomo Boni, who is a Venetian, told the writer that in his youth Venetian mothers frightened their children with threats of the Croats.
29. One such was sent to the Italian Chamber in February, 1914. Another was circulated in Gorizia, Trieste, and Istria in April, 1914. (Carnovale, Why Italy Entered Into the Great War, pp. 190-1.)
30. Barclay, The Turco-Italian War, p. 113; McClure, Italy in North Africa, pp. 35-38.
31. Speech of Premier Salandra delivered at the Campidoglio, Rome, June 2, 1915.
32. Cf. Goricar and Stowe: The Inside Story of Austro-German Intrigue, chapters III, IV, V.
33. Doctor J. Goricar and Lyman Beecher Stowe, The Inside Story of Austro-German Intrigue, pp. 81-83.
35. R. W. Seton-Watson, The Balkans, Italy, and the Adriatic, p. 13.
36. A commission appointed to examine the charges of atrocious barbarities in this war, which had shocked Christendom, found the charges true and distributed the blame between Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria about equally.
37. Memorandum enclosed in letter of Emperor Francis Joseph to Emperor William II, July 2, 1914. Austrian Republic's Red Book, June 28 to July 23.
38. Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia, dated June 20, 1914.
39. Diplomatic Documents relating to the European War, Part II, p. 1489, 'Signor Giolitti's speech before the Italian Chamber, December 5, 1914. Carnegie-Endowment Publication.
40. Goricar and Stowe, Inside Story of Austro-German intrigue, chap. IX, PP. 181-2.
41. Autograph letter of Emperor Francis Joseph to the Kaiser, July 2, 1914, with enclosed memorandum. (Austrian Republic's Red Book.)
42. It had been recently renewed by San Giuliano (1912) but, as appeared later, mainly as a measure for balancing interests, under Art. VII.
43. The eloquent Triestino, Barsillai.
44. The writer said to a distinguished Italian interventionist Statesman once in the days when the phrase Sacro Egoismo was the watchword of Italy: "It seems to me that your press talks too much of your geographical aspirations and that you give the appearance thereby of lacking a moral principle." He reflected a moment and then said: "Do you not consider that the rounding out of the nationality of a free people and their Liberation contain a moral principle ? "
45. The immediate cause of his retirement was the resignation from his ministry of Signor Nitti, the radical deputy from near Naples, one of his cleverest, ablest, and most ambitious lieutenants.
46. The long diplomatic correspondence which ensued on the Austrian declaration of war discloses clearly the conflicting and ultimately irreconcilable points of view and, in fact, vital interests of Austria and Italy. The Italian correspondence of the period prior to December 9 has not yet been published, as the Green Book, published just before Italy entered the war, begins with that date. We have enough, however, in the Austrian Red Book No. 2, in the Austrian Republic's Red Book, and in published Italian documents to arrive at a clear comprehension of the whole matter.
47. Austro-Hungarian Red Book 2, No. 3.
49. The delivery was deferred suddenly by the fact that the departure of the Boat on which the President of the French Republic and the Minister for War were leaving Russia was unexpectedly deferred for several hours.
51. Id., Doc. No. 7, July 23, 1914.
56. Documents I and memorandum: Supplements and Appendices to Austria-Hungarian ("Republic's") Red Book, Carnegie Foundation Translation.
58. The Austrian Republic's new Red Book shows how Austria, finding her policies seriously affected by the unexpected issue of the Balkan wars, and giving up hope of renewing an efficient Russian alliance as a pivot for her Balkan policy, determined to show by a military deed her power in the Balkans in a manner which should impress Roumania and the Balkan states, and doubtless Italy and the rest of Europe as well. The Austrian authority above cited states how Count Berchtold supported by the joint minister of finance, Balenski, the minister of War, Krobatin, and the prime minister, Count Sturkgh, set to work to render Serbia thenceforth a harmless quantity in her political policy. Her intention, as therein disclosed, was to bring about an alliance between Bulgaria and Turkey and so impress Russia that the latter would abandon its position as the general protector of Pan-Slavism.
The true causes of the war, as given in this interesting presentation of Austro-Hungarian views and plans, were France's desire to re-establish her old power in Europe, beginning with her recapture of Alsace and Lorraine; secondly, England's deep-seated apprehension of Germany; thirdly, Russia's aim to dominate the Balkans and control the Dardanelles with their outlet to the open sea; and, finally, Roumania's enmity to the dual monarchy.
59. He was elected September 4, 1914.
60. These had formerly been a political organization of great activity in withstanding the advance of Clericalism against the union of all Italy with Rome as its capital; but with the general recognition of this accomplished fact, the Free Masons had settled down into a merely influential element of the normal Italian political life. They, however, still retained an effective organization, and strong feelings of antagonism still survived, as was evidenced by the Assassination about the end of the war of the head of the Free Masons in Rome by a crank.
61. When von Bülow had failed in his mission, he said that he "had been unfortunate; he had come to a country where every one talked about everything and had found in power the one man there who never said a word about anything."
62. Von Bülow was one of the dozen members of the Order of the Annunziata, the highest Italian order, whose members are considered Cousins of the King, and as such have the privileges of precedence over all but Royalty.
63. The Malessoris were the Catholic elements in Northern Albania. It is said that King William of Wied asked the old Malessori chief: "Who are these people whom they call Malessori?"
64. Austro-Hungarian Red Book 2, Docs. 49, 50. Id., Doc. 55, dated September 12, 1914.
65. Id., No. 73, dated December 1.
67.. Cf. articles signed XXX in La Revue de Deux Mondes, March 1 and March 15, 1920.
68. It already numbered nearly sixty votes in the Chamber, to which it bore about the same relation that the Irish vote bore to the House of Commons.
69. It was generally rumored throughout Rome that his friends spirited Signor Giolitti away three days before the Parliament was to be reassembled, in order to prevent the execution of a plot against his life. This plot was alluded to later in the Chamber. Whatever may have been the basis for the story of the plot against the life of the former premier, it is certain that his activities in connection with the effort of the Central Empires to prevent the war party in Italy from attaining their aim of drawing her into the war had a great effect for a considerable period, and at times gave promise of being successful. It was believed that not only from Rome but from his country place at Cavour, in Lombardy, he was the inspiring spirit of the anti-Interventionists, and it served to have only a letter from him to one of his followers on the question of the Government's policy to throw the country into a ferment.
70. Parecchio: the "equivalent."
71. Among the most violent of the attacks on the former premier was the Giornale d'talia, a journal which had been founded in part by Sonnino and ---it was said---Salandra, and in which the former still retained an interest. It was conducted by a devoted follower of his, and thus came to be considered as a sort of semi-official organ of the Government.
72. Italian Green Book (May 20,1915), Docs. No. 1 and 2.
73. Italian Green Book, Doc. No. 8, December 20, 1914.
74. Green Book, May 20, 1915, Doc. No. 2, pp. 12, 13, 14.
78. Id., p. 41. Telegram of March 10, 1915.
79. There is an interesting document in the Austrian Red Book No. 2, Doc. No. 8, January 14, 1915, being an instruction from Count Berchtold to the Austrian Ambassador at Rome, giving a summary of two reports from Prince von Bülow at Rome to his Government. In the summary the German Ambassador says both Giolitti and Baron Sonnino "reaffirm their friendly attitude toward the Triple Alliance, and regret that Italy was not in a position to enter the war on the side of her allies." They are reported by him as having dwelt on the failure of Austria-Hungary to communicate with her ally before she addressed her note to Serbia; the bad impression in Italy at the aggressive terms of the note; the view that Austria-Hungary could not conduct a war and was doomed to destruction; and the belief that the Italian dynasty could not maintain the throne if Italy should fail to obtain territorial advantages from the general conflagration.
81. The conditions formulated consisted of eleven Articles:
I. The cession to Italy by Austria-Hungary of the Trentino with the frontiers of the Italian kingdom of 1811, as defined by the Treaty of Paris of February 28, 1810.
II. The correction of Italy's eastern frontier to take in the cities of Gradisca and Gorizia, with the extension of the eastern frontier as therein described along the Isonzo and the Alpine Ridges.
III. The constitution of an autonomous and independent State of Trieste and its territory as therein described, with renunciation of all sovereignty over it by Austria-Hungary.
IV. The cession to Italy by Austria-Hungary of the Curzola Archipelago, as therein described, including Lissa.
V. The immediate occupation by Italy of the territories ceded in Articles I, II, and IV, and the evacuation of the Trieste territory by Austro-Hungarian forces, and the discharge from Austrian service of all soldiers and sailors derived therefrom.
VI. The recognition by Austria-Hungary of Italy's full sovereignty over Valona and its Bay, comprising Saseno together with such hinterland as might be requisite for their defense.
VII. Austria-Hungary's immediate and complete cessation from interesting itself in Albania as comprised within the frontiers traced by the Conference of London.
VIII. The granting immediately by Austria-Hungary of complete amnesty, followed by immediate release of all those prosecuted and convicted on military or political grounds, who were natives of the ceded territories mentioned in Articles I, II, and IV, and of the evacuated territories in Article III.
IX. In complete satisfaction of all pecuniary claims of Austria-Hungary against said territory ceded or evacuated, including any proportional quota of the public debt, Italy to pay the former 200,000,000 Lit Ital, in gold.
X. The maintenance of perfect neutrality by Italy toward Austria-Hungary and Germany throughout the war.
XI. The renunciation by Italy of all power thereafter during the existing war to invoke in her own favor the provisions of Article VII of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance, Austria-Hungary to make the same renunciation as to all that regarded Italy's effective occupation of the Islands of the Dodecanese.
82. Against these labored sedulously and effectively the British and French Ambassadors, Sir Rennell Rodd and M. Camille Barrère, both accomplished Diplomats.
83. Austrian Red Book, No. 2, 185. Telegram of May 15 from Baron Macchio to Baron Burian.
84. Giolitti had written a letter denying that he worked against the Ministry. It was his friends who compromised him.
85. Gustave Hervé in La Guerre Sociale, April 30, 1915.
86. The Premier, in his address of the 2d of June, in which he stated Italy's position, referred bitterly to the large sums of money expended in this treasonable work.
87. The magnitude of this accomplishment of transportation may be gauged by the fact that "between December 12, 1915, and February 22, 1916, 11,651 refugees, invalids, and wounded were transported from the Albanian coast to Brindisi, Lipari, Marseilles, and Beserola; 130,841 Serbian soldiers were landed in Corfu and 4,100 at Biserta. Six Italian liners, two French Auxiliary Cruisers, five Italian and one French hospital ships, two Italian Ambulance ships, and fifteen Italian, fifteen French, and four English Steamers were engaged in the work. Some 23,000 Austrian prisoners were transported to Asinava between December 16, 1915, and February 12, one English, two French, and eleven Italian steamers being engaged in the work. Besides which the Naval Base at Valona was created and supplied and the Expeditionary force in Albania was transported and supplied; the major part being performed by the Italians.
"The Italian Navy at the outbreak of the war comprised fourteen battleships, six of which were Dreadnoughts, cruisers, sixteen light cruisers, some fifty destroyers, and nearly seventy torpedo-boats, about twenty submarines, three naval ships, and numerous airplanes." (Archibald Hurd, Italian Navy in the Great War.)
To this list during the war were certain additions, but on the other hand there were a number of losses, including the fine Leonardo da Vinci and the Benedetto Brin, which were blown up in or just outside of Harbor by treachery, the former in Taranto Harbor, the latter at Brindisi.
88. Von Tirpitz states that as early as October, 1914, he was informed by the competent Officer at G. H. Q. that "Verdun was not attacked any more on account of the shortage of ammunition, as it was not desired to expose the Crown Prince's army to a reverse." (Von Tirpitz's Memoirs, I, p. 51, n.)
89. Review of Trentino Operations, dated August 6, 1916, published by Italian Press, August 7, 1916.
90. The Italians reckoned that the Austrians outnumbered them four to one in this offensive in both guns and men.
91. Italy in the War, Sidney Low, p. 133.
92. By this term the Italians understood was intended the handing over of the Italian women to the Austrian soldiery.
93. Secret Treaties, F. Seymour, London, p. 53.
96. It was rumored that the note would have been even sharper in tone but for the Italians, who urged a more friendly form.
97. A little later, on the occasion of some demonstration, a shopkeeper of Rome sent to ask the loan of an American flag of the American Embassy saying none was to be bought in Rome.
98. Cf. The Secret Treaties, by F. S. Cocks, London, 1918, Appendix B, See. VII, and Manchester Guardian, December 7, 1917.
100. The account given is taken from sources which appear to the writer worthy of credit among the mass of stories and relations by writers and other persons, some of whom were participants in a part of the tragic events, and all of whom desired to tell the exact truth as far as they knew it.
101. The author was personally informed at the time of the facts as herein stated by eye-witnesses and persons of undoubted veracity and information.
102. Cf. Trevelyan's Scenes from Italy's War, chap. VIL Also see the reports of foreign press correspondents who were in the retreat.
103. Later the Italian armies were reorganized on a new system, and on this front were numbered lot, 3d, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th.
104. It is said by Italian authorities that Foch did not believe that Italy could hold the Piave line, and was for Cadorna's withdrawing behind the Po-Mincio line; but that Cadorna held a different view, and his decision prevailed. (Cf. Modern Italy Review, March 13, 1919, pp. 132-3.)
105. Immediately, on the Caporetto disaster the American Red Cross, which had that summer sent a commission to Italy to look over the field, tendered aid which was gladly accepted. The first contribution was $250,000, telegraphed to the American Embassy. And a Red Cross train of supplies was despatched to Italy from Paris, under Major Carl Taylor and Major Edward Eyre Hunt. This was followed a few weeks later by the Red Cross Commission under Colonel Robert Perkins, Commissioner for Italy, and his efficient staff: Majors James Byrne, Samuel L. Fuller, Joseph Collins, M.D., Guy Lowell, and Chester Aldrich. And from this time the American Red Cross was the principal American support on the ground in Italy. Its services in the cause of cementing friendship between the two Peoples cannot be overestimated.
106. New Europe, December 20, 1917.
107. The Secret Treaties, E. Seymour Cocks, London Edition, p. 19.
109. In September, 1907, the British Minister at Teheran explained in a communication to the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs the nature of the Anglo-Russian agreements, in which he said: "The object of the two Powers in making this agreement is not in anyway to attack, but rather to assure for ever the independence of Persia." This view Sir Edward Gray confirmed in the House of Commons, February 14, 1908. But "full liberty of action" accorded now to Russia was scarcely compatible with the independence of Persia. Great Britain's consent to the entire arrangement must be read in the light of the situation existing when it was given.
111. The report was made to the writer in January, 1918, that Palermo had been without grain for two days. Naples had only two days' supply, and hardly any city outside of the war zone had more than a week's supply.
112. The deficit of the preceding harvest in Italy was 12,000,000 quintals.
113. The Echo de Paris wrote a reassuring article on this, January 12 (1918), which gave the Italians great satisfaction.
114. Reduced to terms of Swiss francs as the standard, the following table win show the comparative depreciation of the money of the Allies at the end of December, 1917:
| England | 17.35 |
| France | 23.40 |
| Italy | 47.40 |
Cf. Corriere della Sera, Milan, January 8, 1918. Prior to the war the difference had been less than 1.
115. Mr. Herbert Clarke Hoover, who had had a large experience in administering the Belgium Relief supplies.
116. Secret Treaties, p. 41, n.
117. The League of Nations, M. Ertzberger, Miall's Translation, London, p. 29.
118. British authorities state that British Divisions had been reduced to about 10,000 men each, and there were 58 Divisions from Ypres to the Oise, while the Germans had 192 Divisions on the western front.
119. The nomination of General Foch is now known to have come from General Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, who in a conference boldly announced that the method hitherto pursued was leading to defeat; that without a single commander of all the armies they could not win, and then mentioned General Foch as the best man for the place and expressed his readiness to place himself and his troops under General Foch's command. The nomination was immediately seconded by Mr. Lloyd George, and thus the decision was made that turned the tide in the war.
To General John J. Pershing is due a greater debt than apparently is generally known. From his disposition and command of the American military forces in France came about, not only first, the singleness of command of all the armies in France under Marshal Foch; but, secondly, the admirable work at St. Mihiel; thirdly, the great achievement of the Americans in the Argonne, and, finally, the important fact that the United States had at the close of the war a real and efficient army of her own.
120. Official Report of the Commando Supremo on the Battle of Vittorio-Veneto.
121. Final Report of General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the A. E. F., p. 36.
122. Says General Pershing in his Final Report, p. 53: "Twenty-two American and four French Divisions on the front extending from the southeast of Verdun to the Argonne Forest had engaged and successfully beaten forty-seven German Divisions, representing twenty-five per cent of the enemy's entire divisional strength on the Western front."
123. Coke sold in Rome in the autumn of 1918 at 500 lit. ital. per ton. There was no coal to be bought at any price.
124. The only American troops in Italy were the 232d Regiment (Ohio troops), Colonel Wallace; some 30 Ambulance units, attached to the Italian army, and about 1,000 and odd American Aviators, who were sent to Italy for training. Besides these there was in the Adriatic a Squadron of Torpedo-Chasers, under Captain Nelson.
All the American troops in Italy were under command, first of Major-General Eben Swift, and on his retirement of Brigadier-General Charles G. Treat, heads of the American Mission of Military Observers. These all rendered efficient service, as was cordially recognized in the Italian reports.
125. It was commonly asserted in Roman circles that the Italian Premier had replied to Marshal Foch's suggestion to him that Diaz ought to make an offensive, that, if Marshal Foch issued an order to that effect, Italy would march immediately. Whereupon the Marshal said he could not assume such a responsibility without studying personally the situation.
126. The Nation, London. Communication of Robert Dell, Correspondent of Manchester Guardian, 1919.
127. On authority of M. Lazare Weiller, a French Deputy.
128. Report of Italian Commando Supremo on the Battle of Vittorio-Veneto.
130. Report of Italian Commando Supremo on Battle of Vittorio-Veneto.
131. The correspondent of a Paris paper wrote that Italy was like Manaldo, who, according to Dante, struck an already deadly wounded foe. The allusion gave great offense in Italy.
132. Report of Italian Commando Supremo on Battle of Vittorio-Veneto.
133. It was said that the information of the sinking of this Austrian Dreadnought reached the Italian Authorities when they were engaged in a conference with their colleagues of England and France who were pressing to have the Italian fleet put under the command of the French Admiral.
134. Report of Italian Commando Supremo.
135. Report of Italian Commando Supremo.
136. A somewhat unsympathetic report on the conflicting contentions of Italy and the rapidly organizing State of Jugo-Slavia, touching Rights on the Eastern shore of the Adriatic, said that apparently wherever there was a Roman Ruin and a few Italians the Italians claimed it was Italy. The statement contained a profounder truth than the official knew. Italy with her long record of accomplishment and failure, disaster, and disruption; of suffering and fortitude and sacrifice and achievement, now, in what appeared the dissolution of that which had caused her age-long passion, stood revealed in the glory of her final achievement as the Patria into whose all-embracing arms all the Italians were to be gathered at last..
137. There appears to have been no question as to the fact that the views expressed in the Morning Post of London were those expressed by Bissolati to the Correspondent. The only question was as to the form. Bissolati's friends stated that he had given them as his views and for publication, but had not expected them to be stated as "an interview."
He has since died. And in him Italy has lost one of her most devoted sons.
138. "In November, 1918," says an English critic of the President, "the armies of Foch and the words of Wilson had brought us sudden escape from what was swallowing up all we cared for." (The Economic Consequences of the Peace, J. M. Keynes, p. 37.)
139. It is not understood that Baron Sonnino ever personally asserted any legal claim to Fiume. However earnestly he may have wished to have Fiume assigned to Italy, he appears to have felt himself bound by the Treaty of London and to have confined himself personally in discussions to argument and to the advantage derived from the Treaty of London, leaving it to others to assert Italy's Right to Fiume.
140. The French Embassy under instructions from Paris issued an "official communication" that M. Clemenceau not only did not inspire, but did not know of the President's contemplated publication nor approve of it. The Members of that Embassy in Rome met, arrayed in full uniform, the returning Commissioners at the railway-station in token of their sympathy with them.
141. It is to be noted that in all this period of excitement no act of rudeness was reported as having been offered to any American in Italy.
