erous examples of persons who in the most
wanton fashion were expelled from the town. Thus a merchant called
Pliskovac was arrested by the carabinieri, while talking to some English
soldiers. After three days, spent under arrest, he was told that he
would have to depart "from Italy" (_sic_). He was given a _faglio di via
obligatorio_ by the carabinieri, according to which he was banished on
the ground of being "unemployed." Yet this man had had a fixed residence
in Rieka for thirty-six years, was employed as a merchant, and furnished
with a regular industrial certificate.... His name had been found on one
of the lists in favour of annexation to Yugoslavia. When the world in
general turned its attention away from Rieka, very much relieved to
think that there would be an end to all the turmoil now that an
agreement had at last been reached and the poor harassed place was to be
neutral, it presumed that those among her citizens who had been openly
in arms against the other party would as soon as possible resign. They
would have been astonished to be told that the notorious self-elected
Consiglio Nazionale Italiano, under the selfsame President, Mr.
Grossich, cheerfully remained in office. It is true that they now called
themselves the "Provisional Government"; in Paris and London this change
of title made a good deal more impression than upon the local Yugoslavs,
whose treatment did not vary. A decree was printed on January 21, 1921,
in the _Vedetta_, which laid it down that the expulsions ordered by the
previous Government retained their force, but that appeals might be
addressed to the Rector of the Interior. A deputation was received by
this gentleman, and was told that the procedure would be so complicated
and so lengthy that it would not permit any one to return until after
the elections. These elections had been fixed for the end of April, and
it seemed as if France and England were so blinded by the blessed words
"Provisional Government" that they could see nothing else. That over
2000 arditi, clothed in mufti, had either stayed from the d'Annunzian
era or been since introduced was surely gossip, and how could anyone
believe that those men had been granted citizenship on the simple
declaration of a Rieka shopkeeper, or some such person, that the
applicant worked under him? These declarations, by the way, must have
refrained from going into details, for there was an almost total lack of
work--except in the political de