heir respective intentions as well as those of the other Powers.
If, however, in the course of events the maintenance of the
_status quo_ in the Balkans and on the Ottoman coasts and in the
islands of the Adriatic and the AEgean Seas should become
impossible, and if, either in consequence of the acts of a third
Power or of other causes, Austria and Italy should be compelled to
change the _status quo_ by a temporary or permanent occupation,
such occupation shall only take place after previous agreement
between the two Powers, based on the principle of a reciprocal
arrangement for all the advantages, territorial or other, which
one of them may secure outside the _status quo_, and in such a
manner as to satisfy all the legitimate claims of both parties.

Nothing could be plainer than that Austria-Hungary, by forcing war
upon Serbia, planned to change the _status quo_ in the Near East. Yet
she had not taken the trouble to give Italy any explanation of her
intentions, nor had she said anything about giving her ally reciprocal
compensation as provided for in the treaty. Three days after the
memorable 23d of July, therefore, Italy intimated to the Vienna
Government that her idea of adequate compensation would be the cession
of those Austrian provinces inhabited by Italians. In other words, she
insisted that, if Austria was to extend her borders below the Danube
by an occupation of Serbia, as was obviously her intention, thus
upsetting the balance of power in the Balkans, Italy expected to
receive as compensation the Trentino and Trieste, which, though under
Austrian rule, are Italian in sentiment and population. Otherwise, she
added, the Triple Alliance would be broken. On the 3d of August,
having received no satisfactory reply from Austria, Italy declared her
neutrality. In so doing, however, she made it quite clear that she in
no way admitted Austria's right to a free hand in the Adriatic or the
Balkan Peninsula--regions which Italy has long regarded as within her
own sphere of influence.

Early in the winter of 1914 Prince von Buelow, one of the most suave
and experienced German diplomats, arrived in Rome on a special mission
from Berlin. In his first interview with the Italian Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Baron Sonnino, he frankly acknowledged Italy's right
to territorial compensation under the terms of Article VII of the
Triple Alliance. There is no doubt that Germany, recognizing the
danger of flo