to become an independent kingdom? Is Montenegro to
disappear? What is Greece to get? The only one of these questions that
can be answered with any certainty is the last. Greece, as the result
of her shifty and even treacherous attitude, will get very little
consideration. On the decision of these questions hangs the future of
the Balkan peoples. Though their final settlement must, of course, be
deferred until the coming of peace, some regard will have to be paid,
after all, to actual occupancies and accomplished facts. That is why
Italy is making her position in Albania so solid that she cannot
readily be ousted. And perhaps it is well that she is. Europe will owe
a debt of gratitude to the Italians if they can bring law and order to
Albania, which has never had a speaking acquaintance with either of
them.

Nor do Italian ambitions end with the domination of the eastern shore
of the Adriatic. With the destruction, or at least the disablement, of
the Austrian Empire, Italy dreams of bringing within her political and
commercial sphere of influence a considerable portion of the Balkan
Peninsula, from which she is separated by only forty-seven miles of
salt water. But that is only the beginning of her vision of
commercial greatness. Look at the map and you will see that with its
continuation, the island of Sicily, Italy forms a great wharf which
reaches out into the Mediterranean, nearly to the shores of Africa.
Her peculiarly fortunate geographical position enables her, therefore,
to offer the shortest route from Western and Central Europe to North
Africa, the Levant, and the Farther East. It has been rumored, though
with what truth I cannot say, that the Allies have agreed, in the
event that they are completely victorious, to a rectification of the
Tunisian and Egyptian frontiers, thus materially improving Italy's
position in Libya, as the colony of Tripolitania is now known. It is
also generally understood that, should the dismemberment of Asiatic
Turkey be decided upon, the city of Smyrna, with its splendid harbor
and profitable commerce, as well as a slice of the hinterland, will
fall to Italy's portion. With her flag thus firmly planted on the
coasts of three continents, with her most dangerous rival finally
disposed of, with the splendid industrial organization, born of the
war, speeded up to its highest efficiency, and with vast new markets
in Africa, in Asia, in the Balkans opened to her products, Italy
dreams of