the Italians were well advised
in taking Zadar into their possession. Presumably the Government was
forced to do so by the state of public feeling. They withstood this
feeling with regard to the magnificent harbour of Vis, which even
President Wilson suggested they should have, and contented themselves
with the smaller Yugoslav island of Lastovo (Lagosta). The pity is that
the Nationalists should have forced into their hands anything which may
turn and sting them.

It may be thought that we are excessively pessimistic in pointing rather
to the dangers which the Treaty places on the tapis than to the good
sense of those who will deal with them. We do not say that the Italians
would have permitted their Government to solve the Adriatic question in
a safer and more philosophic manner; but we cannot look forward with
that confidence we should have had if more sagacious counsels had
prevailed.

An arrangement most agreeable to the bulk of the interested population
would have been effected if two Free States, instead of one, had been
created: the small one of Rieka, and a larger one embracing Triest and
the western part of Istria. There would be in each of these two States a
mixed population, who would think with a shudder of the time when the
grass was growing on their quays. Italians and Slavs, prosperous as of
old, would very cordially agree that the experiment of being included in
Italy had been at any rate a commercial disaster. [D'Annunzio's
administration was, of course, a mere camouflage. Without the support of
the Italian Government, which paid his troops though calling them
rebels, the poet-adventurer could scarcely have lasted for a day; and
the swarm of officers, many of them worse adventurers than himself,
would have deserted him. Nor would the population of Rieka have listened
to his glowing periods if the Italian Government had not, under cover of
the Red Cross, sent an adequate supply of food into the town.] Both
Rieka and Triest were, therefore, living under practically the same
conditions, separated from their natural hinterland, and knowing very
well that as Italian towns their prospects were lamentable. It was
significant that the Italian Government should after a time have studied
the scheme of constructing a canal from Triest to the Save. Before the
War one-third of the urban population (and all the surrounding country)
was Yugoslav; and now, when so many Yugoslavs have departed and so many
Italians h