ommand of the sea, it was natural that in most places the Italians got
the better of the scramble; and where they found the Yugoslavs in
possession, as at Rieka, they usually ousted them by diplomatic methods.
And in one way or another they managed to make their holdings tally, as
far as possible, with the Treaty of London, and even to go beyond it.
Baron Sonnino declined to make a comprehensive statement as to the
Italian programme. Of course he desired in the end to exchange
Dalmatia--the seizure of which would entail a war with Yugoslavia--against
Rieka. But as Italian public opinion had scarcely thought of Rieka
during the War, he made it his business to cause them to yearn for that
town. His compatriots were asking why Mr. Wilson's Fourteen Points
should be waived for France in the Sarre Basin, for Britain in Ireland
and Egypt, but not for them. And some of his would-be ingenious
compatriots pointed out--their contentions were embodied in the Italian
Memorandum to the Supreme Council on January 10, 1920--that as the
Treaty of London was based on the presumption that Montenegro, Serbia
and Croatia would remain separate States, this instrument had been
altogether upset by the merging of those Southern Slavs into one
country, Yugoslavia; it followed, therefore, that the Treaty which
attributed Rieka to the Croats could no longer be invoked. But the other
parts of the Treaty which gave the Slav mainland and islands to Italy
were absolutely unassailable. The reader will resent being troubled by
this kind of balderdash, but Messrs. Clemenceau, Lloyd-George and Wilson
may have resented it even more.

ITALIAN MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS

On November 3 the Italians arrived outside Vis (Lissa), the most
westerly of the large islands, where the entire population of 11,000 is
Slav, except for the family of an honoured inhabitant, Dr. Doimi, and
three other families related to his. Dr. Doimi's people have lived for
many years on this island--his father was mayor of the capital, which is
also called Vis, for half a century--and now they have become so
acclimatized that, as he told me, three of his four nephews prefer to
call themselves Yugoslavs. This phenomenon can be seen all down the
Adriatic coast. It has often, for example, been pointed out to Dr. Vio,
the very Italian ex-mayor of Rieka, that he has a Croat father and
several Croat brothers. Thus also the Duimi['c] family of the same town
has one brother married to a Mag