The question of Rieka had not yet been settled. The more suave Tittoni,
who had succeeded Sonnino, was hoping with the help of France to hold
his own against Wilson. Monsieur Tardieu thought that the town with a
large strip of hinterland should become a separate independent State
under the League of Nations. An arrangement was also proposed by which
the city was to be administered by Italy, while the Yugoslavs should
have a guarantee of access to the sea. These negotiations were still in
a nebulous state, but certain proposals were going to be put into force
which were suggested by the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry. With
French, American, Italian and British representatives this commission
had visited Rieka. One of the recommendations was to the effect that
public order should be maintained by British and American police; on the
very day (September 12) that the British military police were to
inaugurate their service, Gabriele d'Annunzio took matters into his own
hands. He rose, he tells us, from a bed of fever and, refusing to
recognize the Nitti Government, he marched with the appropriate
theatrical ceremonies, into his "pearl of the Adriatic." What he called
the 15th Italian victory, or, alternatively, the _Santa Entrata_--the
Holy Entry--was accomplished without the shedding of a drop of blood.
Rieka, the stage of many fantastic scenes, witnessed one of the
quaintest in the simultaneous arrival at the Governor's palace of a
General to whom the Allies had entrusted the command of the town and a
rebel Lieut.-Colonel who refused to recognize his authority. They seemed
to be on the best of terms. The General (Pittaluga) informed the Allies
that he was still in supreme command. Being invited on the following
morning to explain the situation at a conference on board the U.S.S.
_Pittsburg_, at which were present the Allied naval and military
commanders, General Pittaluga informed them that he would be responsible
for the maintenance of order and that nothing was to be considered
altered in the government of the town. Forty minutes later, without
consulting the Allies, he had handed over the town to a rebel and he
himself, in his private car, had vanished. In a subsequent message to
the Turkish Minister in Berne, sympathizing for the Allied occupation of
Constantinople, d'Annunzio's Foreign Department informed him that "the
Legionaries of the Commandant d'Annunzio put to flight the English
police-bullies who were biding their time to snatch the tortured city."
Opinions vary as to whether the poet-pirate was at that time acting in
collusion with Rome--his defiance and their thunders being included in
the stage directions--or whether he was a real rebel. We may assume that
Signor Nitti did not countenance the buccaneer and that if officers and
civil servants diverted Government cargoes into his hands they were not
acting as Government agents. As for large numbers of these officials,
their secret understanding with d'Annunzio received many proofs. On
September 29 the _Era Nuova_ reported that, two days before, Major
Reina, d'Annunzio's Chief of Staff, was invited to Abbazia, where he had
an interview with the Chief of Staff of the 26th Corps. Illuminating
also is the report, in the _Era Nuova_ of October 27, of a test case at
Genoa, when a sergeant was tried for leaving his regiment and going to
Rieka. The prosecutor demanded four months' detention and degradation.
The court accepted the plea of the defence, which was that the court
could not condemn or dishonour a soldier who was only guilty of
patriotic sentiment. Moreover, it transpired that those who returned
from Rieka, after receiving there a salary from both parties, were
granted three weeks' leave and a reward of 100 lire. One observed that
when the S.S. _Danubio_ left [vS]ibenik for Rieka with sixty
waggon-loads of coal, the captain received his sailing orders from the
Royal Italian port-officer. When d'Annunzio seized Rieka there was on
that same night a solemn demonstration at Zadar, led by Vice-Admiral
Millo, who was supposed to be governing Dalmatia in the name of the
Entente.
* * * * *
The Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of Rieka, that self-elected body which
had so often told the world that Rieka was unshakeably determined to be
joined to the Motherland, now took to its bosom the modern Rienzi,
regardless of that which happened to the mediaeval one. The C.N.I. could
now devote itself to serious executive work, for d'Annunzio--in spite of
or because of his fever--relieved them of the rather exhausting task of
issuing proclamations. In three months he sent out something like a
thousand. He did a great many other things--he ruined, for instance, the
economic life of the town. Everything had for a time gone swimmingly.
The Chief of the Republic of San Marino was voicing the sentiments of
numberless Italians when he saluted the poet as a great Italian patriot.
Such was the feeling of the majority of the army and navy, so that the
Government in Rome was made to look ridiculous. "Mark well what I am
telling you," said the poet to the special correspondent of the
_Gazzetta del Popolo_. "I have received a call from a superior hidden
force, and though the fever burns within me I am consoled, because the
War has made me a mystic and I feel I am inspired from on high in this
mission." D'Annunzio and his cohorts refused to have anything to do with
the Cabinet. Signor Nitti, supported by the Parliament and the more
responsible people, was openly attacked by the Nationalists and secretly
by the profiteers and the newly rich on account of his bold taxation
programme, by which he hoped to bring 30 milliards of francs into the
Exchequer. The Nationalists assisted d'Annunzio to win over the army;
and in northern Italy there were many who realized that an army which
can be moved by such an appeal can, on the next day, rally to
Bol[vs]evism. No other troops remained in Rieka, the small French and
British detachments having been withdrawn. Before this happened there
occurred a repetition, on a larger scale than usual, of a few French
soldiers being attacked by a body of Italian warriors who greatly
outnumbered them. Some of the French were Annamites, than whom no more
harmless persons can be imagined.[44] And it was in order to avoid such
untoward incidents that the Franco-British troops were evacuated.
D'Annunzio was left to do his worst. Rieka was one of the problems which
the Peace Conference had failed to solve, and now they were in much the
same inglorious position as the Great Powers who in 1913 warned Turkey
not to mobilize, since they would not allow the Balkan Confederation to
make an attack, and after the attack gave it out that the Balkan States
would not be permitted to acquire any new territory. The Supreme Council
in Paris was losing its prestige very rapidly. "A little patience,"
begged Tittoni, "and my Government will turn out d'Annunzio." "What we
want," exclaimed Clemenceau, "is a Government in Italy!"--and the
Italian delegates, with flushed faces, pointed out that it was not Italy
which wanted Rieka, but Rieka which wanted Italy. They would do their
best, although so many men in Italy were now convinced that Rieka would
sooner die than give up d'Annunzio. Presently, under his
administration, it began to die. But this was not altogether distasteful
to certain intriguers who were interested in the future of Triest. There
might also arise, to the satisfaction, of other intriguers, an armed
conflict with the Yugoslavs. But nothing could be calmer than the
Yugoslavs' attitude. Perhaps these barbarians--as they are often styled
in Italy--were confident that justice would prevail. Perhaps they
thought that they could bide their time, and certainly what happened at
Trogir was not calculated to reassure the Italians.