French army to the Italian front.[243]
At the Peace Conference, as we saw, when the terms with Germany were
being drafted, Italy's problems were set aside on the grounds that there
was no nexus between them. The Allies' interests, which were dealt with
as a whole during the war, were divided after the armistice into
essential and secondary interests, and those of Italy were relegated to
the latter class. Subsequently France, Britain, and the United States,
without the co-operation or foreknowledge of their Italian friends,
struck up an alliance from which they excluded Italy, thereby vitiating
the only arguments that could be invoked in favor of such a coalition.
When peace was about to be signed they one-sidedly revoked the treaty
which they had concluded in London, rendering the consent of all Allies
necessary to the validity of the document, and decreed that Italy's
abstention would make no difference. When the instrument was finally
signed, Mr. Wilson returned to the United States, Mr. Lloyd George to
England, and the Marquis of Saionji to Japan, without having settled any
of Italy's problems. Italy, her needs, her claims, and her policy thus
appear as matters of little account to the Great Powers. Naturally, the
Italian people were disappointed, and desirous of seeking new friends,
the old ones having forsaken them.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the consequences which this attitude
of the Allies toward Italy may have on European politics generally. Her
most eminent statesman, Signor Tittoni, who succeeded Baron Sonnino,
transcending his country's mortifications, exerted himself tactfully and
not unsuccessfully to lubricate the mechanism of the alliance, to ease
the dangerous friction and to restore the tone. And he seems to have
accomplished in these respects everything which a sagacious statesman
could do. But to arrest the operation of psychological laws is beyond
the power of any individual. In order to appreciate the Italian point of
view, it is nowise necessary to approve the exaggerated claims put
forward by her press in the spring of 1919. It is enough to admit that
in the light of the Wilsonian doctrine they were not more incompatible
with that doctrine than the claims made by other Powers and accorded by
the Supreme Council.

To sum up, Italy acquired the impression that association with her
recent allies means for her not only sacrifices in their hour of need,
but also further sacrifices in their