wresting from France and England the overlordship of the
Middle Sea.

It would be useless to deny that an unfavorable impression was created
in the United States by the fact that Italy, in entering the war,
turned against her former allies. Her enemies have charged that she
dickered with both the Entente and the Central Powers, and only joined
the former because they made her the most tempting offer. That she did
dicker with Austria is but the unvarnished truth--and of that chapter
of Italian history the less said the better--but I am convinced that
she finally entered the war, not because she had been bribed by
promises of territorial concessions, but because the national
conscience demanded that she join the forces of civilization in their
struggle against barbarism. Suppose that I sketch for you, in brief,
bold outline, the chain of historic events which occurred during the
ten months between the presentation to Serbia of the Austrian
ultimatum and Italy's declaration of war on Austria. Then you will be
able to form your own opinion.

On the evening of July 23, 1914, Austria handed her note to Serbia. It
demanded in overbearing and insulting terms that Serbia should place
under Austrian control her schools, her law-courts, her police, in
fact her whole internal administration. The little kingdom was given
forty-eight hours in which to consider her answer. In other words, she
was called upon, within the space of two days, to sacrifice her
national independence. At six o'clock on the evening of July 25 the
time limit allowed by the Austrian ultimatum expired. Half an hour
later the Austrian Minister and his staff left Belgrade.

Now Article VII of the Treaty of Alliance between Italy, Austria, and
Germany provided that in the event of any change in the _status quo_
of the Balkan Peninsula which would entail a temporary or permanent
occupation, Austria and Italy bound themselves to work in mutual
accord on the basis of reciprocal compensation for any advantage,
territorial or otherwise, obtained by either of the contracting
Powers. Here is the text of the Article. Read it for yourself:

Austria-Hungary and Italy, who aim exclusively at the maintenance
of the _status quo_ in the East, bind themselves to employ their
influence to prevent every territorial change which may be
detrimental to one or other of the contracting Powers. They will
give each other all explanations necessary for the elucidation of
t