the Croatians and
other Slavs whom our gallant soldiers found facing them, and it was they
who were guilty of the misdeeds from which our armies suffered."
Official documents prove this.[201] Orders of the day issued by the
Austrian Command eulogize "the Serbo-Croatian battalions who vied with
the Austro-German and Hungarian soldiers in resisting the pitfalls dug
by the enemy to cause them to swerve from their fidelity and take the
road to treason.[202] In the last battle which ended the existence of
the Austro-Hungarian monarchy a large contingent of excellent Croatian
troops fought resolutely against the Italian armies."

In Italy an impressive story is told which shows how this transformation
of the enemy of yesterday into the ally of to-day sometimes worked out.
The son of an Italian citizen who was fighting as an aviator was killed
toward the end of the war, in a duel fought in the air, by an Austrian
combatant. Soon after the armistice was signed the sorrowing father
repaired to the place where his son had fallen. He there found an
ex-Austrian officer, the lucky victor and slayer of his son, wearing in
his buttonhole the Jugoslav _cocarde_, who, advancing toward him with
extended hand, uttered the greeting, "You and I are now allies."[203]
The historian may smile at the naivete of this anecdote, but the
statesman will acknowledge that it characterized the relations between
the inhabitants of the new state and the Italians. One can divine the
feelings of these when they were exhorted to treat their ex-enemies as
friends and allies.

"Is it surprising, then," the Italians asked, "that we cannot suddenly
conceive an ardent affection for the ruthless 'Austrians' of whose
cruelties we were bitterly complaining a few months back? Is it strange
that we cannot find it in our hearts to cut off a slice of Italian
territory and make it over to them as one of the fruits of--our victory
over them? If Italy had not first adopted neutrality and then joined the
Allies in the war there would be no Jugoslavia to-day. Are we now to pay
for our altruism by sacrificing Italian soil and Italian souls to the
secular enemies of our race?" In a word, the armistice transformed
Italy's enemy into a friend and ally for whose sake she was summoned to
abandon some of the fruits of a hard-earned victory and a part of her
secular aspirations. What, asked the Italian delegates, would France
answer if she were told that the Prussians whom her mat