egates was impeded by the occasional
Cabinet crises in Belgrade and in Rome. It was made no easier by those
Italians who clamorously objected to the remark of Clemenceau, when he
said that both Yugoslavs and Italians had been compelled to fight in
Austria's army. The _Corriere d'Italia_ told him that he displayed the
zeal of a corporal to defend the Yugoslavs. After alluding to his
"historical inexactitudes," it reminded him of the Italians who were
slain at Reims and the Chemin des Dames, but as usual omitted to speak
of the French soldiers who fell in Italy. And, while the negotiations
were being carried on, Gabriele d'Annunzio clung to his town. The
compromise of a mixed administration seemed to have small chance of
being realized. It had been proposed by that Inter-Allied Commission
which was set up to investigate the circumstances of the French
massacre; and the Italian delegate, General di Robilant, not only said
in his report[48] to the Senate that this compromise was most favourable
for Italian aspirations but he is alleged also to have included some
very drastic criticism of the actions of the high military authorities,
whom he charged with unconstitutional interference. Nevertheless neither
the poet nor the Premier were as yet in a tractable mood with regard to
the Rieka problem. Signor Nitti, parading his bonhomie, championed the
cause in a more statesmanlike fashion; he did not, like d'Annunzio,
evoke the world's ridicule by his footlight attitudes and those of his
faithful supporters who, when his "Admiral" Rizzo abandoned him, when
Giorati his confidant withdrew, when even Millo advised moderation, took
certain piratical steps in order to keep the garrison supplied with
food,[49] and composed an anthem which on ceremonial occasions was
chanted in the poet's honour. But when Signor Nitti observed, with the
utmost affability, that Rieka had, after the fall of the Crown of St.
Stephen, become mistress of her own fate and as such, regardless of the
Treaty of London, asked for inclusion in Italy, he, the Prime Minister,
was vying in recklessness with d'Annunzio. The prevailing sentiment both
in Triest and Rieka, said the _Times_,[50] was that both these towns
should become free ports in order to serve their hinterlands, which are
not Italian. "Italy is neglecting Triest in favour of Venice," says the
dispatch. In Rieka, where the situation was even worse, "an honest
plebiscite, even if confined to the Italian par