Seeing that the Adriatic problem, after all these months, had not been
solved but on the contrary had been allowed to spread its poison more
and more, one naturally wonders what was being done in Paris. The
Conference was fortunate enough to have at its disposal, after the
Armistice, the famous ethnologist and archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans.
This gentleman, whose distinctions are too numerous to mention (Fellow
of Brasenose; twice President of the British Association; Keeper during
twenty-four years of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; D.Litt.; LL.D.;
F.R.S.; P.S.A., and so forth), has for many years devoted himself to the
eastern Adriatic--the second edition of his _Through Bosnia and the
Herzegovina on Foot_ appeared in 1877, his _Illyrian Letters_ in 1878,
his _Slavs and European Civilization_ in the same year. He never ceased
from that time onward to study these matters. "I think," he says in a
letter to me from Youlbury, near Oxford, of which he kindly permits me
to make any use I like, "that in some ways I have more title to speak on
the Adriatic Question than any other Englishman, as Dalmatia was my
headquarters for some years. Neither did I approach the question with
any anti-Italian prejudices. I was so far recognized as a competent and
moderate authority that I was asked by the Royal Geographical Society to
give them a paper on the subject.... Anxious, with others friendly to
both sides, to secure an equitable agreement between the Italians and
Yugoslavs, I took part in a series of private conferences in London
which led to a preliminary Agreement forming the basis on which the
Congress at Rome approached the question. There the Agreement was
ratified and publicly approved by Orlando. How Sonnino proceeded to try
to wreck it, you will know. Finally (just before the Armistice, as it
happened) there was to have been a new Congress of Nationalities at
Paris, which I was asked to attend. It was stopped by the big Allies, as
matters were thought too critical, owing to the submission of Bulgaria.
But I thought it would be useful if I went to Paris all the same, and I
obtained from the Foreign Office, War Office, etc., a passport vised
'British War Mission.' Shortly after I arrived in Paris the Armistice
was declared. Soon afterwards, owing to the departure of Mr. Steed and
Dr. Seton-Watson, there was left literally no one among our countrymen
at Paris who knew the intricacies of the Adriatic Question and the
relations of Italy with the Yugoslavs, and the Yugoslav-Roumanian
difficulties, etc. That being the case, Lord Derby asked me to be his
go-between, and I had an immense lot of work thrown on my shoulders. I
had gone to the expense of taking a large salon at the Hotel
Continental, where I had private Conferences--the Yugoslav and Roumanian
leaders there, for instance, discussed the Banat frontier question, and
the conciliatory proposals made no doubt furthered the final solution,
with which they harmonized. When there was a serious danger of a clash
between the Italian army and the Serbian forces at Ljubljana, knowing
the imminence of the danger I made such strong representations to Lord
D., which he forwarded to Balfour, that immediate pressure was exercised
at Rome, and the Italians just drew back in time. I also was able to
convey strong monitions to the other side. I used to let our Ambassador
have a short precis almost daily of affairs connected with those
regions.... With great trouble I prevailed on the Yugoslav
representatives to agree to a scheme, which I drew up, for the
neutralization of the East Adriatic coastal waters, and this was taken
up by the Americans--Colonel House inviting me to an interview on the
subject, in which he expressed his approval. A copy was also sent to the
F.O., and for this and for several other bits of work useful to the F.O.
I received Balfour's official thanks. I had also many friendly
conversations with prominent Italians in Paris, and in every way
ingeminated agreement between them and the Southern Slavs. But,
meanwhile, I exposed the Nationalist Italian campaign, to which Sonnino
was privy, in the _Manchester Guardian_. Finally I went, at the end of
1918, for a short holiday to England, Lord Derby (with whom I always had
the friendliest relations) giving me a diplomatic pass. When, however,
early in January 1919 I prepared to return to Paris, where I had kept on
my expensive rooms, I found difficulties in my way. Italian intrigue had
apparently been on foot. I was advised to write to Lord Hardinge, and I
told him briefly the circumstances. This great man never answered or
acknowledged my letter, and it was only by making urgent personal
representations at the F.O. that I finally got the answer that they
refused me a passport.... I gather that it was not only Italian intrigue
but the feeling that they did not want 'damned experts.' And so they
blundered on, and to this day"--the letter is dated July 17,
1920--"nothing is settled on the Adriatic but unsettlement."