n without delay. The reply, which was
promptly given, dismayed the Italians. It was in the form of one of
those interpretations which, becoming associated with Mr. Wilson's name,
shook public confidence in certain of the statesman-like qualities with
which he had at first been credited. The construction which he now put
upon the mode of voting to be applied to Fiume, including this city--in
a large district inhabited by a majority of Jugoslavs--imparted to the
project as the Italians had understood it a wholly new aspect. They
accordingly declared it inacceptable. As after that there seemed to be
nothing more for the Italian Premier to do in Paris, he left, was soon
afterward defeated in the Chamber, and resigned together with his
Cabinet. The vote of the Italian Parliament, which appeared to the
continental press in the light of a protest of the nation against the
aims and the methods of the Conference, closed for the time being the
chapter of Italy's endeavor to complete her unity, secure strong
frontiers, and perpetuate her political partnership with France and her
intimate relations with the Entente. Thenceforward the English-speaking
states might influence her overt acts, compel submission to their
behests, and generally exercise a sort of guardianship over her, because
they are the dispensers of economic boons, but the union of hearts, the
mutual trust, the cement supplied by common aims are lacking.

One of the most telling arguments employed by President Wilson to
dissuade various states from claiming strategic positions, and in
particular Italy from insisting on the annexation of Fiume and the
Dalmatian coast, was the effective protection which the League of
Nations would confer on them.[232] Strategical considerations would, it
was urged, lose all their value in the new era, and territorial
guaranties become meaningless and cumbersome survivals of a dead epoch.
That was the principal weapon with which he had striven to parry the
thrusts of M. Clemenceau and the touchstone by which he tested the
sincerity of all professions of faith in his cherished project of
compacting the nations of the world in a vast league of peace-loving,
law-abiding communities. But the faith of France's leaders differed
little from unbelief. Guaranties first and the protection of the League
afterward was the French formula, around which many fierce battles royal
were fought. In the end Mr. Wilson, having obtained the withdrawal of
the