And Italy has determined that they shall be terrorized no more. How
history repeats itself! Just as Rome, twenty-two centuries ago, could
not permit the neighboring islands of Sicily to fall into the hands of
Carthage, so Italy cannot permit these coastwise islands, which form her
only protection against attacks from the east, to pass under the control
of the Jugoslavs.

"But," I said to the Italians with whom I discussed the matter, "why do
you need any such protection now that the world is to have a League of
Nations? Isn't that a sufficient guarantee that the Jugoslavs will never
attack you?"

"The League of Nations is in theory a splendid thing," was their answer.
"We subscribe to it in principle most heartily. But because there is a
policeman on duty in your street, do you leave wide open your front
door?"

To be quite candid, I do not think that it is against Jugoslavia, or,
perhaps it would be more accurate to say, against an unaided Jugoslavia,
that Italy is taking precautions. I have already said, I believe, that
thinking Italians look with grave forebodings to the day when a great
Slav confederation shall rise across the Adriatic, but that day, as they
know full well, is still far distant. Italy's desperate insistence on
retaining possession of the more important Dalmatian islands is dictated
by a far more immediate danger than that. She is convinced that her next
war will be fought, not with the weak young state of Jugoslavia, but
with Jugoslavia _allied with France_. Every Italian with whom I
discussed the question--and I might add, without boasting, many highly
placed and well-informed Italians have honored me with their
confidence--firmly believes that France is jealous of Italy's rapidly