The World Decision | Page 7

Austria, and to accept the
risks of war instead. It was rather the very practical consideration of
that indefensible frontier, which Austria stubbornly refused to make
safe for Italy--after she had given cause, by her attack upon Serbia, to
render all her neighbors uneasy in their minds for their safety.
So much for the sentimental and the strategical threads in the Consulta
negotiations. It was neither for sentiment nor for strategical advantage
solely that Italy finally entered the war. Nevertheless, if the German
Powers had frankly and freely from the start recognized Italy's position,
and surrendered to her immediate possession--as they were ready to do
at the last moment--sufficient of those national aspirations to safeguard
national security, with hands off in the Adriatic, Italy most probably
would have preferred to remain neutral. I cannot believe that Salandra
or the King really wanted war. They were sincerely struggling to keep
their nation out of the European melting-pot as long as they could. But
they were both shrewd and patriotic enough not to content themselves
with present security at the price of ultimate danger. And if they had
been as weak as the King of Greece, as subservient as the King of
Bulgaria, they would have had to reckon with a very different people
from the Bulgars and the Greeks--a nation that might quite conceivably
have turned Italy into a republic and ranged her beside her Latin sister
on the north in the world struggle. The path of peace was in no way the
path of prudence for the House of Savoy.
* * * * *
Lack of imagination is surely one of the prominent characteristics of

the modern German, at least in statecraft. Imagination applied to the
practical matters of daily living is nothing more than the ability to
project one's own personality beneath the skin of another, to look
around at the world through that other person's eyes and to realize what
values the world holds for him. The Prince von Bülow, able diplomat
though they call him, could not look upon the world through Italian
eyes in spite of his Italian wife, his long residence in Rome, his
professed love for Italy. It must have been with his consent if not by his
suggestion that Erzburger, the leader of the Catholic party in the
Reichstag, was sent to Rome at this critical juncture. The German mind
probably said,--"Here is a notable Catholic, political leader of German
Catholics, and so he must be especially agreeable to Italians, who, as
all the world knows, are Catholics." The reasoning of a stupid child!
Outwardly Italy is Catholic, but modern Italy has shown herself very
restive at any papal meddling in national affairs. To have an alien--one
of the "barbari"--seat himself at the Vatican and try to use the papal
power in determining the policy of the nation in a matter of such
magnitude, was a fatal blunder of tactless diplomacy. Nor could Herr
Erzburger's presence at the Vatican these tense days be kept secret from
the curious journalists, who lived on such meager items of news. No
more tactful was it for Prince von Bülow to meet the Italian politician
Giolitti at the Palace Hotel on the Pincian. There is no harm in one
gentleman's meeting another in the rooms of a public hotel so
respectable as the Palace, but when the two are playing the
international chess game and one is regarded as an enemy and the other
as a possible traitor, the popular mind is likely to take a heated and
prejudiced view of the small incident. Less obvious to the public, but
none the less untactful, was the manner in which the German
Ambassador tried to use his social connection in Rome, his family
relationships in the aristocracy of Italy, to influence the King and his
ministers. He might have taken warning from the royal speech
attributed to the Queen Mother in reply to the Kaiser: "The House of
Savoy rules one at a time." He should have kept away from the back
stairs. He should have known Italy well enough to realize that the
elements of Roman society with which he was affiliated do not
represent either power or public opinion in Italy any more than good
society does in most modern states. Roman aristocracy, like all

aristocracies, whether of blood or of money, is international in its
sympathies, skeptic in its soul. And its influence, in a decisive question
of life and death to the nation, is nil. The Prince von Bülow was
wasting his time with people who could not decide anything. As
Salandra said, with dignified restraint in answer to the vulgar attack
upon him made by the German Chancellor,--"The Prince was a sincere
lover of Italy, but he was ill-advised by persons who no longer