The Italians had not been two days in Pola--in which arsenal town the
population, unlike that of the country, mostly uses the Italian
language--when they made themselves disliked by both parties. The
President of the Italian National Council was told by the Admiral that
an Austrian crown was to be worth forty Italian centesimi. This, said
the Admiral, was an order from Rome. The President explained that this
meant ruin for the people of the town. He asked if he might telegraph to
Rome. "I am Rome!" said the Admiral, or words to that effect. Thereupon
the President and the colleagues who were with him said they would never
come again to see the Admiral "If I want you," said the Admiral, "I
will have you brought by a couple of carabinieri." On the next day red
flags were flying on the arsenal and on the day after the Italian troops
were taken elsewhere, while 10,000 fresh ones came from Italy. And Pola,
in exchange for troops, gave coal. For some time the Italians carried
off two trainloads of it every day. This absence of coal from their own
native country, which rather places them at the mercy of the
coal-producing lands, seems to be more their misfortune than anybody's
fault, yet the Italian party of Rieka added this to their grievances
against France and Great Britain. Those two countries ought, they said,
in very decency, to correct the oversights of Providence; but no very
practical suggestions were put forward.