r d'officier_ that at 4 p.m. the Serbian troops should
leave Rieka and go to Porto Re, an hour's sea journey, that the Yugoslav
troops should remain, and that the Italians should not land. No other
steps would be taken till November 20 at noon, and the Supreme Command
would be asked to settle the difficulty. As soon as the Serbian troops
were out at sea, the Italian army, under General di San Marzano
(attended by a kinematograph), marched in from the hills, entering the
town simultaneously from four directions, in accordance with a strategic
plan. The General was told what Raineri had agreed to do; he replied
that he was Raineri's senior, that the final decision rested with him,
and that he intended to proceed into the town. (One of the British
officers is said to have addressed him rather bluntly.) At 4.30 Raineri
landed his marines, and afterwards he was dismissed from his post--not,
indeed, for having broken his word given at the inter-Allied conference,
but for having delayed so long before disembarking troops in the town.
He said he had received a written order from the Entente; if only
Maximovi['c] had not left he might have shown it him. With twenty
carabinieri the General went to the Governor's palace and asked Dr.
Lenac to vacate it. He was so excited that he almost pushed the doctor
out. "There is no room for the two of us," he said. And that is how the
Italian occupation began. The French and British brought some troops in
at a later date, but when they had six hundred each the Italians had
22,000. With the Italians came fifty Americans, so that the force might
have an international appearance. These Americans were given
broad-sheets, printed by the town Italianists in English; they welcomed
the Americans as liberators, and informed them that the population had
by plebiscite declared for annexation to the Motherland. On the same
night the Yugoslav troops were turned out of their barracks into the
street by the Italian army.... These are, I believe, the main facts as
to the occupation which has been the subject of much heated argument. I
had the facts from eye-witnesses and documents: I exposed the evidence
of each side to the criticism of the other.

Very soon the disorders began. On the evening of the occupation Italian
troops ran through the town, accompanied by some of the plebiscite, and
compelled the people to remove the Yugoslav colours from their
button-holes. In cases they surrounded their victim and u