The reception of the delegates in Rome was a triumph, their return to Paris a humiliation.  For things had been moving fast in the meanwhile, and their trend, as we said, was away from Italy’s goal.  Public opinion in their own country likewise began to veer round, and people asked whether they had adopted the right tactics, whether, in fine, they were the right men to represent their country at that crisis of its history.  There was no gainsaying the fact that Italy was completely isolated at the Conference.  She had sacrificed much and had garnered in relatively little.  The Jugoslavs had offered her an alliance—­although this kind of partnership had originally been forbidden by the Wilsonian discipline; the offer was rejected and she was now certain of their lasting enmity.  Venizelos had also made overtures to Baron Sonnino for an understanding, but they elicited no response, and Italy’s relations with Greece lost whatever cordiality they might have had.  Between France and Italy the threads of friendship which companionship in arms should have done much to strengthen were strained to the point of snapping.  And worst, perhaps, of all, the Italian delegates had approved the clause forbidding Germany to unite with Austria.

That the fault did not lie wholly in the attitude of the Allies is obvious.  The Italian delegates’ lack of method, one might say of unity, was unquestionably a contributory cause of their failure to make perceptible headway at the Conference.  A curious and characteristic incident of the slipshod way in which the work was sometimes done occurred in connection with the disposal of the Palace Venezia, in Rome, which had belonged to Austria, but was expropriated by the Italian government soon after the opening of hostilities.  The heirs of the Hapsburg Crown put forward a claim to proprietary rights which was traversed by the Italian government.  As the dispute was to be laid before the Conference, the Roman Cabinet invited a juris consult versed in these matters to argue Italy’s case.  He duly appeared, unfolded his claim congruously with the views of his government, but suddenly stopped short on observing the looks of astonishment on the faces of the delegates.  It appears that on the preceding day another delegate of the Economic Conference, also an Italian, had unfolded and defended the contrary thesis—­namely, that Austria’s heirs had inherited her right to the Palace of Venezia.[226]

Passing to more momentous matters, one may pertinently ask whether too much stress was not laid by the first Italian delegation upon the national and sentimental sides of Italy’s interests, and too little on the others.  Among the Great Powers Italy is most in need of raw materials.  She is destitute of coal, iron, cotton, and naphtha.  Most of them are to be had in Asia Minor.  They are indispensable conditions of modern life and progress.  To demand a fair share of them as guerdon for having saved Europe,