m the military point of view it is incomparably
more to the interest of Italy that she should live on friendly terms
with the people of the eastern shore of the Adriatic than that she
should maintain there an army out of all proportion to her military and
economic resources--an army which in time of war would be worse than
useless, since, as M. Gauvain observes, the submarines, which would find
their nesting-places in the islands, would destroy the lines of
communication. An Italian naval argument is, that if she had to fight on
the eastern side of the Adriatic her sailors in the morning would have
the sun in their eyes; but the Yugoslavs would be similarly handicapped
in the case of an evening battle. With regard to the economic reasons,
the longitudinal lines will continue to guarantee to the Germans and
Magyars the commercial monopoly of the East, and Italy will perceive
that she has paid very dearly for a blocked-up window. The sole method
by which Italy can from the Adriatic cause her commerce to penetrate to
the Balkans is by concluding with a friendly Yugoslavia the requisite
commercial treaties, which will grow more valuable with the construction
of the lateral railways, running inland from the coast, which Austrians
and Magyars so constantly impeded.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF LONDON

If, then, it is difficult to see where the Italian interests will be
profited by the possession of Dalmatia, there remains the argument that,
irrespective of the consequences, she must have a good deal of it since
it was allotted to her by the Treaty of London,[24] although the
engagements entered into by Italy, France and Great Britain when they
signed the Treaty with Germany caused the earlier instrument to be
subject to revision where its terms had been disregarded. Signor
Orlando, in an interview granted in April 1918 to the _Journal des
Debats_, eagerly insisted that the Treaty had been concluded against the
Austrian enemy, not against the Yugoslav nation; and if this be more
than a mere phrase it is clear that with the disappearance of
Austria-Hungary the Treaty automatically fell to the ground. By this
Treaty of April 1915, France and Great Britain are bound--if necessary,
by force of arms--to assist Italy in appropriating what, I believe, will
be acknowledged to be some one else's country, at all events a country
the vast proportion of whose inhabitants have determined that on no
account will they come under the Ita