the Italians for asking more than they had been promised in the Treaty of London. He pointed out to them the serious consequences of a real break and said, "He hoped they would make one last effort to come to an agreement." Lloyd George supported the plea, coming out more strongly for the Treaty of London than Clemenceau had ventured to do. "He wished to say that Great Britain stood by the Treaty, but that she stood by the whole of the Treaty"-meaning particularly the clause assigning Fiume to Croatia.

This was a position satisfactory to none of the contesting parties. Orlando stated that he would take it into consideration only "if what Mr. Lloyd George said meant that the Conference would take its decision on the basis of the Treaty of London, leaving Fiume to be settled as the Conference thought fit." Wilson, on the other hand, flatly declined any arrangement which "would be to adopt as a basis a secret treaty."

The first day's discussion thus closed with a triple deadlock.

In succeeding conferences the issues were so confused that no one quite knew where he stood. On April 20 Orlando, evidently trying to get back upon some firm ground, even if it was that of the secret treaty, the terms of which he considered insufficient, read a statement ending:

I declare formally that, in the event of the Peace Conference guaranteeing to Italy all the rights which the Treaty of London has assured to her, I shall not be obliged to break the Alliance, and I would abstain from every act or deed which could have this signification.

This statement seemed to line him up with Lloyd George and Clemenceau, and implied that he would not

ask them to break over their bond in respect of Fiume. If the Italians had adhered rigidly to such a position (as the Japanese did later) they would have come near to isolating Wilson, but they seemed incapable of maintaining any steady position whatsoever. Certain remarks by Sonnino at the close of that very meeting implied that there was little sincerity back of the gesture. The game seems to have been to play both ends against the middle-to keep the Treaty of London between Wilson and his two other colleagues, and yet actually to depend on Wilson to prevent a settlement in accordance with it, depriving them of Fiume. The President rose to the occasion, pleading once more the principles of the peace and declining to have any traffic with the secret treaty. And yet, although he refused to be bound by it, there it was, an old promise made to get Italy into the war; and Great Britain and France, notwithstanding their acceptance of Wilson's principles as the basis of the peace, still adhered to it. Lloyd George repeatedly asserted that Italy had paid the price of what was promised her in the Treaty of London and that she was entitled, at the least, to considerably more than she could have got by remaining neutral. This was frank loyalty to the most sordid principles of the old diplomacy. It was "honour among thieves."

Wilson was not unwilling to make certain minor concessions to secure an agreement: for example, he offered to give way to Italy on the single island of Lissa and even suggested that all the territory covered by the Treaty of London might be ceded to the Allied and Associated Powers for later disposal, but on points that the Italians regarded as vital-like that of Fiume-he would make no compromise whatever. Indeed, he had now nearly reached the point of giving up hope of any settle

Photograph from Colonel Charles Wellington Furlong

Caricature of President Wilson in a German helmet pasted by

ment with Orlando and Sonnino and had begun to consider cutting through the endless tangle of controversy by a bold appeal to the people of the world. It was a method he had always considered a final resort; for he had an inextinguishable faith that the people, if appealed to, would support his view of the rightness of the programme proposed.

Clemenceau and Lloyd George anxiously restrained him from his project of a public statement, and eagerly sought new compromises with the Italians. But this renewed effort seemed only to convince the Italians that Wilson was on the point of giving in, and instead of moderating their demands, they actually made them more insistent. Even Lloyd George pronounced Orlando's memorandum of April 22, in which he demanded the sovereignty over Fiume and a mandate for Zara and Sebenico, as too excessive to serve as a basis of negotiation, and the Three now turned seriously to a discussion of Wilson's proposal for a public statement of his position.

In the meantime the Italians had been redoubling their efforts outside the Conference. They were openly threatening to leave Paris; and Wilson was being bitterly attacked in Italy, and by French papers which were supporting the Italian claims. Never was there such utter confusion. No one knew what the situation really was, and Wilson, above all, was being misrepresented.

On April 23, the President at last burst through the wire entanglements which enveloped the Italian settlements and issued his epoch-making statement to the people of the world. It was like a flash of lightning clearing up the darkness of the world; and the thunder clap that followed was terrific. It sent Orlando flying for Italy.