pitals, still continues to be a place of destiny
in Europe. It is not in the glare of light in which Berlin and Paris
find themselves, but the fates of Berlin and Paris are secretly
dependent on it. For Rome sways the balance of power after the war.
If Rome backs Germany, France at once feels isolated; if Rome backs
France, Germany must come to terms. The French are victors and have
the winning forces in their hands, but the Italians are psychologists
and know how to win without material force. Hence has arisen the
curious after-the-Paris-conference situation. Italy has been despised
by France; Italy, therefore, has renounced that war-after-the-war, dear
to the French heart; Italy has communed with Dr. Benes and planted
another thorn in the side of the Hapsburgs; she has secretly opposed
French policy in Hungary. With Germany she has made a commercial
entente--not a political or military one, but a pacific _laissez-faire_
for the purposes of trade. France envisages the complete ruin of
German industry and commerce, and believes that Foch is the man to do
it. At this the Italians smile quietly and counsel the timorous
Germans not to despair. Rome chooses to hold to the thesis that a
prosperous Italy depends on a prosperous Germany, and no outsider is
qualified to dispute such a point of view. Somehow Italy manages to
suggest a similar thought to England. A prosperous England depends on
a prosperous Germany. The British trade depression is thought to be
due to the destructive policy of the French. The question of the
taking of the Ruhr basin becomes a test case: _Very bad for English
business_, say the English manufacturers in chorus. We are back to the
Treaty of Versailles: Votes count. England and Italy are in the scale
against France, and France must yield. The cup of hemlock is taken
from Germany's shut mouth and a cup of merely disagreeable medicine is
placed there instead. Italy and England sing to her a new song quietly
and secretly, and she decides to take it so as to escape the hemlock.
So Italy has stopped France on the Ruhr. It is an easier task to stop
her in Upper Silesia where she is pushing the Poles into a similar
assault on German industries. Lloyd George makes his violent
anti-French speeches, and the British battalions follow after his hot
words to enforce what he has said. The Italian was despised but he can
afford to smile. O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet!

Italy's main dange