f the war had been calculated for every
month, every week, every day, and that the total impressed every one
profoundly; but that nobody had thought it worth his while to count up
the atrocious cost of this incredibly slow peace and of the waste of
wealth caused every week and month that it dragged on. Italy, he
lamented, felt this loss more keenly than her partners because her peace
had not yet been concluded. He felt moved, therefore, he said, to tell
them that the business of governing Europe to which the Conference had
been attending all those months was not precisely the work for which it
was convoked.[292]

This sharp and timely admonition was the preamble of a motion. The
Conference was just then about to separate for a "well-earned holiday,"
during which its members might renew their spent energies and return in
October to resume their labors, the peoples in the meanwhile bearing the
cost in blood and substance. The Italian delegate objected to any such
break and adjured them to remain at their posts. Why, he asked, should
ill-starred Italy, which had already sustained so many and such painful
losses, be condemned to sacrifice further enormous sums in order that
the delegates who had been frittering away their time tackling
irrelevant issues, and endeavoring to rule all Europe, might have a
rest? Why should they interrupt the sessions before making peace with
Austria, with Hungary, with Bulgaria, with Turkey, and enabling Italy to
return to normal life? Why should time and opportunity be given to the
Turks and Kurds for the massacre of Armenian men, women, and children?
This candid reminder is said to have had a sobering effect on the
versatile delegates yearning for a holiday. The situation that evoked it
will arouse the passing wonder of level-headed men.

It is worth recording that such was the atmosphere of suspicion among
the delegates that the motives for this holiday were believed by some to
be less the need of repose than an unavowable desire to give time to
the Hapsburgs to recover the Crown of St. Stephen as the first step
toward seizing that of Austria.[293] The Austrians desired exemption
from the obligation to make reparations and pay crushing taxes, and one
of the delegates, with a leaning for that country, was not averse to the
idea. As the states that arose on the ruins of the Hapsburg monarchy
were not considered enemies by the Conference, it was suggested that
Austria herself should enjoy the