knew that Serbia was doomed the moment Bulgaria
declared war.

Bitter as the admission might be to Italy, it was convinced that
Montenegro was in the like case with Serbia. Montenegro had as little
hope of coping with the combined forces of Germany, Austria, and
Bulgaria as Serbia. A mere consideration of the alternative plans of
rendering aid to her small neighbors revealed the most promising of
them as entailing a useless sacrifice. It would have meant the taking
over-sea of some hundreds of thousands of men and large guns during
the worst period of the year. The passage to the Montenegrin port of
Antivari would have required the protection of the entire Italian
navy, thus leaving the coasts of Italy exposed to the attacks of the
enemy. And what would have been the main purpose of the expedition? To
save the celebrated Mount Lovcen, which indeed dominates the Bocca di
Cattaro, but does not dominate the Bocca di Teodo, where at the time
of the combined attacks of Montenegrins and French from Mount Lovcen
months before, and of the French and English from the sea, the
Austrian navy was safely sheltered. What Italy could wisely do she did
so. She succored the retreating Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers, gave
them food, clothing, and shelter, and brought them in safety to the
different places to which they had been assigned.

Even before hostilities commenced between Italy and Austria the
Italian Government accomplished a _tour de force_. Against the tacit
opposition of Austria she transported a considerable body of troops to
the port of Avlona, which, with Brindisi, commands the entrance to the
Adriatic. A glance at the map will immediately reveal the vital
importance of this strategic position as a base for expeditionary
forces in Albania and the Balkans, while its naval possibilities make
it inferior to no port on the Adriatic. The fly in the ointment was
in the Austrian hold on the Bocca di Cattaro. Thence Austrian
submarines could menace Italian shipping, even though no Austrian
surface craft dare approach the Strait of Otranto. To this has to be
added the further peril arising from the strong current that is
supposed to descend from the head of the Adriatic. While transporting
troops from Brindisi to Avlona, more than one Italian vessel fell
victim to floating mines borne down by this current.

Such in general outline was Italy's position at the end of the year
1915, and such the tenor of those who sought to vindi