For a considerable time it was not known who were the members of the
Italian National Council. From internal evidence one saw that they were
not particularly logical people, for they made much play, in their
announcements, with "democratic principles" in spite of the undemocratic
fog in which they wrapped themselves. Of course they had not been
elected by anyone except themselves; but there was a vast difference
between them and the self-elected Croat National Council, since the
latter derived their authority from the Croatian Government at Zagreb,
which Dr. Vio, in the name of the Rieka municipality, had
recognized--whereas the Italian National Council was destitute of any
parent, though they would, had they been pressed, have claimed, no
doubt, the blissfully unconscious "Madre Patria." Subsequently it turned
out that the I.N.C. consisted of Dr. Vio and of fourteen persons who had
hitherto not taken part in public life. They were fourteen worthies of
the background, the most remarkable act in the life of their President,
Dr. Grossich, for example, dating from twenty years ago when he was the
medical attendant of the Archduchess Clothilde, and decorated, so they
say, his consulting-room with black and yellow festoons. The I.N.C.
appeared at its inception to be different from a Russian Soviet because
it had no power.