rational desire to settle Italy’s Adriatic frontiers, it was observed, ought not to have lessened his concern about the larger issues which his unwonted procedure was bound to raise.  And one of these was respect for authority, the loss of which was the taproot of Bolshevism.  Signor Orlando replied to the appeal in a trenchant letter which was at bottom a reasoned protest against the assumed infallibility of any individual and, in particular, of one who had already committed several radical errors of judgment.  What the Italian Premier failed to note was the consciousness of overwhelming power and the will to use it which imparted its specific mark to the whole proceeding.  Had he realized this element, his subsequent tactics would perhaps have run on different lines.

The suddenness with which the President carried out his purpose was afterward explained as the outcome of misinformation.  In various Italian cities, it had been reported to him, posters were appearing on the walls announcing that Fiume had been annexed.  Moreover, it was added, there were excellent grounds for believing that at Rome the Italian Cabinet was about to issue a decree incorporating it officially, whereby things would become more tangled than ever.  Some French journals gave credit to these allegations, and it may well be that Mr. Wilson, believing them, too, and wanting to be beforehand, took immediate action.  This, however, is at most an explanation; it hardly justifies the precipitancy with which the Italian plenipotentiaries were held up to the world as men who were misrepresenting their people.  As a matter of fact careful inquiry showed that all those reports which are said to have alarmed the President were groundless.  Mr. Wilson’s sources of information respecting the countries on which he was sitting in judgment were often as little to be depended on as presumably were the decisions of the special commissions which he and Mr. Lloyd George so unceremoniously brushed aside.

On the following morning Signori Orlando and Sonnino called on the British Premier in response to his urgent invitation.  To their surprise they found Mr. Wilson and M. Clemenceau also awaiting them, ready, as it might seem, to begin the discussion anew, curious in any case to observe the effect of the declaration.  But the Italian Premier burned his boats without delay or hesitation.  “You have challenged the authority of the Italian government,” he said, “and appealed to the Italian people.  Be it so.  It is now become my duty to seek out the representatives of my people in Parliament and to call upon them to decide between Mr. Wilson and me.”  The President returned the only answer possible, “Undoubtedly that is your duty.”  “I shall inform Parliament then that we have allies incapable of agreeing among themselves on matters that concern us vitally.”  Disquieted by the militant tone of the Minister, Mr. Lloyd George uttered a suasive appeal for moderation, and expressed the hope that in his speech to the Italian