demand for the Rhine frontier, gave in, and the Covenant was
reinforced by a compact which in the last analysis is a military
undertaking, a unilateral Triple Alliance, Great Britain and the United
States undertaking to hasten to France's assistance should her territory
be wantonly invaded by Germany. The case thus provided for is extremely
improbable. The expansion of Germany, when the auspicious hour strikes,
will presumably be inaugurated on wholly new lines, against which
armies, even if they can be mobilized in time, will be of little avail.
But if force were resorted to, it is almost certain to be used in the
direction where the resistance is least--against France's ally, Poland.
This, however, is by the way. The point made by the Italians was that
the League of Nations being thus admittedly powerless to discharge the
functions which alone could render strategic frontiers unnecessary, can
consequently no longer be relied upon as an adequate protection against
the dangers which the possession of the strongholds she claimed on the
Adriatic would effectively displace. Either the League, it was argued,
can, as asserted, protect the countries which give up commanding
positions to potential enemies, or it cannot. In the former hypothesis
France's insistence on a military convention is mischievous and
immoral--in the latter Italy stands in as much need of the precautions
devised as her neighbor. But her spokesmen were still plied with the
threadbare arguments and bereft of the countervailing corrective. And
faith in the efficacy of the League was sapped by the very men who were
professedly seeking to spread it.

The press of Rome, Turin, and Milan pointed to the loyalty of the
Italian people, brought out, they said, in sharp relief by the
discontent which the exclusive character of that triple military accord
engendered among them. As kinsmen of the French it was natural for
Italians to expect that they would be invited to become a party to this
league within the League. As loyal allies of Britain and France they
felt desirous of being admitted to the alliance. But they were excluded.
Nor was their exasperation allayed by the assurance of their press that
this was no alliance, but a state of tutelage. An alliance, it was
explained, is a compact by which two or more parties agree to render one
another certain services under given conditions, whereas the convention
in question is a one-sided undertaking on the part of Brita