As the months rolled on at Rieka the Italianists became more frantic.
Their telegrams to Rome, in which they begged for instant annexation,
were in vain, and after all, what was the use of adopting the system of
Lieut.-Colonel Stadler, their energetic podesta at Abbazia, who would go
into the hills, accost the peasants and instruct them that they must not
say: "It will be settled by the Paris Conference," but rather--"It has
been settled by the Paris Conference." All the world was learning what
was the position of affairs at Rieka; one of the most important of these
plaguy Allied officers had said that when he first came to the town he
thought it was Italian, but he had soon perceived that it was all a
comedy, and the Italianists were dreadfully afraid that memoranda and
statistics and what not had been dispatched to Paris and that there was
the faintest, awful possibility that one could say: "It has been
settled by the Paris Conference." Everyone, alas! was studying the
case--one heard that Cardinal Bourne, in the course of being feted at
Zagreb, was reported to have shown himself quite intimate with Croatian
history and to have discussed especially the story of Rieka. But by far
the shrewdest blow to the Italianists was Wilson's Declaration. What had
his emissaries, who had listened with such care to everybody, told him?
One must have a grand procession through the town to show the whole
world what the people wanted! As for Wilson, it was good to hear the
lusty shouts of the "Giovani Fiumani": "Down with Wilson! down with
redskins!" Some of the demonstrators, after shouting that Wilson was a
donkey, a horse, a ruffian, would acclaim the new suggestion, that their
enemy was not Wilson at all but Rudolf of Austria, who was still alive.
Another very good idea would be to have great posters made with Wilson's
head crowned by a German helmet, and now, of course, the Hotel Wilson
must become the Hotel Orlando. Let them put a large black cross on all
the Croat houses of Rieka--well, on second thoughts, next morning, that
was not a very brilliant idea, because the crosses were too numerous; so
let the soldiers rub them out again. And where the Croat names on banks
and shops and elsewhere had been effaced, demolished--one could hide
them by long strips of paper which they were so busy printing: "Either
Italy or death!" "Viva Orlando!" "Viva Sonnino!"--those papers were the
best reply to people who were asking if the entire Italian Cabinet was
in harmony with Sonnino. Not merely in harmony--the Cabinet _was_
Sonnino and more particularly Orlando was Sonnino. An Italian major came
out on to a balcony one evening, in uniform, and opened his Italian
heart to the crowd. What would the Allies say to that? The _Dante
Alighieri_, the great dreadnought, manoeuvring with her searchlights,
let them rest awhile upon the _Schley_, an American destroyer. What
would the Yankees do? "Avanti Savoia!" Perhaps in the old days they
would have sent a shot or two into the searchlights, just for luck, but
now they did nothing. And what a scene at the Opera when _Andre Chenier_
was performed and one of the singers came to the word "Traitor!" and
some one shouted "Wilson!" and the whole house shouted "Wilson!" and the
singer, forced to repeat the blessed word, added amid indescribable
enthusiasm the name of the President, that ignominious President
concerning whom it was revealed by one of their newspapers that he must
obviously have pocketed Yugoslav money, perhaps a million, and who most
probably had a Yugoslav mistress--when that opera-singer had emended the
phrase, did that very exalted Italian officer leave his box? Why, no--he
stayed until the end of the performance.... Did any Italian in Rieka
read to the end a small and lucid American book, _Italy and the
Yugoslavs, A Question of International Law_, by C. A. H. Bartlett of the
New York and United States Federal Bar? "It is an admitted fact," says
Mr. Bartlett, "that Italy at the outbreak of hostilities had no rights
to, or in, the territory to which she now makes claim. Her title,
therefore, has arisen since the commencement of the War, and must be
founded on either effective possession legally acquired or on
documentary evidence or some other right recognized by international
law." And quoting Professor Westlake (_International Law_, Part I. p.
91) as to the four grounds on which a State may vindicate its
sovereignty over new domain, he discusses the position in the Adriatic,
and concludes that Italy can claim no title by occupancy, cession,
succession or self-determination. We refer elsewhere to Mr. Bartlett's
commentary on the London Treaty, which is the instrument invoked by the
Italians for their claims to Dalmatia. With regard to Rieka, which, as
everybody knows, was not included even in the London Treaty, Mr.
Bartlett says that while "admitting, for the purpose of argument, that
the seizure has since resulted in an effective possession, yet, as that
is not sufficient in itself to give title, it has no legal or effective
force, but can be compared with nomads squatting on the roadside and
then claiming a right to the soil. Italy was ashamed to assume the
responsibility for the original appropriation of Rieka, which was made
in violation of every legal right of those to whom it belongs, and she
might well be, for a more audacious, unjustifiable proceeding in
violation of every principle of international law it is difficult to
imagine." ... As for the Italian National Council, listen to the
stirring sentences of Mr. Grossich, its old President, after they had
unanimously voted on May 17, and with passionate conviction, an order of
the day directed to Orlando. In that order it was stated that they
looked upon the plebiscite of October 30, 1918, as an indestructible,
historical and legal fact. Grossich exposed the situation and was then
for some instants mute. His voice was trembling when he spoke: "The
sacrifice which circumstances may demand is tremendous, but if it is
required by the supreme interests of Italy we will know how to support
it. More than a citizen of Fiume, I feel myself an Italian" ("Primo che
fiumano mi sento italiano"). At this point the old patriot broke into
tears. "Fiume will defend herself with arms against all those who desire
to violate her will, her national conscience. Seeing that her tenacious,
indestructible Italianity is a grave impediment for Italy in the
attaining of other objects, let Fiume be left to look after herself,
sure as she is of her sons, prepared as she is, to-day more than ever,
to sacrifice herself. She will defend herself against all and from
wherever they come." Those who listened thought that this must mean that
either the _Pester Lloyd_ of April 29 was lying when it printed an
official message stating that General Segre, the Italian representative
at Vienna, had in the name of his Government requested the Hungarian
Soviet Republic to undertake the care of Italian subjects in Rieka, or
else that the Magyars had told him that the 22,000 or 23,000 Italian
soldiers in Rieka ought to be sufficient, as this was practically one
soldier for every person who had been described as an Italian. But the
I.N.C. had now resolved to take no risks; they entered into negotiations
with Sem Benelli, a well-known poet of the school which some critics
call enlivening and other critics call inflammatory. Anyhow, on the
afternoon of June 13, Mr. Benelli was made a citizen of Rieka, a member
of the central committee and was entrusted with the portfolio of
Minister of War, that is to say Commissary for Defence. He thanked the
I.N.C. in a long speech, and declared that his appointment was the
wedding of Rieka and Italy. Then Dr. Vio proposed a law, respecting the
defence to the uttermost of Italian rights--that an army should be
created and that the expenses should be met by the issue of bonds for a
hundred million lire. The citizen Benelli was asked to undertake the
organization and the command of the army.