to
the Turkish Minister in Berne, sympathizing for the Allied occupation of
Constantinople, d'Annunzio's Foreign Department informed him that "the
Legionaries of the Commandant d'Annunzio put to flight the English
police-bullies who were biding their time to snatch the tortured city."
Opinions vary as to whether the poet-pirate was at that time acting in
collusion with Rome--his defiance and their thunders being included in
the stage directions--or whether he was a real rebel. We may assume that
Signor Nitti did not countenance the buccaneer and that if officers and
civil servants diverted Government cargoes into his hands they were not
acting as Government agents. As for large numbers of these officials,
their secret understanding with d'Annunzio received many proofs. On
September 29 the _Era Nuova_ reported that, two days before, Major
Reina, d'Annunzio's Chief of Staff, was invited to Abbazia, where he had
an interview with the Chief of Staff of the 26th Corps. Illuminating
also is the report, in the _Era Nuova_ of October 27, of a test case at
Genoa, when a sergeant was tried for leaving his regiment and going to
Rieka. The prosecutor demanded four months' detention and degradation.
The court accepted the plea of the defence, which was that the court
could not condemn or dishonour a soldier who was only guilty of
patriotic sentiment. Moreover, it transpired that those who returned
from Rieka, after receiving there a salary from both parties, were
granted three weeks' leave and a reward of 100 lire. One observed that
when the S.S. _Danubio_ left [vS]ibenik for Rieka with sixty
waggon-loads of coal, the captain received his sailing orders from the
Royal Italian port-officer. When d'Annunzio seized Rieka there was on
that same night a solemn demonstration at Zadar, led by Vice-Admiral
Millo, who was supposed to be governing Dalmatia in the name of the
Entente.

* * * * *

The Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of Rieka, that self-elected body which
had so often told the world that Rieka was unshakeably determined to be
joined to the Motherland, now took to its bosom the modern Rienzi,
regardless of that which happened to the mediaeval one. The C.N.I. could
now devote itself to serious executive work, for d'Annunzio--in spite of
or because of his fever--relieved them of the rather exhausting task of
issuing proclamations. In three months he sent out something like a
thousand. He did a great m