lO 
LAND & WATHR 
April 26, 191 7 
iiuropcan population was overw liclmiiiRly Italian) and it 
was just tills trouble wJiirh clrow Ilaly into Ihc arms of 
Austria and (Jermaiiv in tin- Triplf AUiancc-^in 1S81. 
J--\en as latf as 101^, wlifU we w( re compelled to sei:^e I-rencli 
sti;aniers canving war supi>lies to the Turks (with whom 
we were then' at war in Triix>li) we were at cross-purposes 
with Trance. 
" Then came the outbreak of the present war. On the 
one side of us was France, with whoili our relations had been 
iiore or less strained during the greater part of the preceding 
century : on the other side Austria, with whom we had been 
closely allied for over three decades. .\nd yet what hap- 
jH-ned ? So sure was Italy's instinct asto what the two oppos- 
nig groups— represented' by these two nations— stood for, 
so entirely were we in accord wth the ideals of the one. 
and so complete was our abhorrence of all that the other 
was fighting to attain, that there was never for an instant 
a chance that we would take advantage of France's diffi- 
culties to even up our accounts of the past (however niuph 
we may have felt that the balance had inclined against us), 
never a chance that we would elect to fight the battles of 
Austria and Germany. Our participation on the side of the 
Entente then became only a matter of time, and from the 
moment we came in, it has' been the single-minded devotedness 
of I'Vance that we have set ourselves as an ideal to strive 
ourselves to attain. The best commentary on the complete- 
ness of our trust in F'rance and the French is the fact that 
the Tedescofd propagandists (who have, perhaps, been busier 
in Italv than in any otiier one of the Allied countries), have 
never decmerl it worth the effort to endeavour to poison the 
Italian mind against the one of our Allies which is the nearest 
to us both racially and geographically." 
" Incomprehensible John Bull ' 
The feelings of the Italians towards the English are less 
clearly defined than their feelings towards the French, and 
the question is a good deal more ramified and complicated. 
It is a truism that the peoples of two nations understand each 
nther in direct ratio to the extent to which they meet and 
iiingle. The same causes which operated to make the French 
Mow to appreciate the effort of the F^nglish — and even, at 
first, to doubt the sincerity of their island Ally— have also 
operated in Italy ; and because the latter was farther away 
from Italy than from France— and because the English were 
not actually shedding their blood upon the soil of the one a. 
they were upon that of the other— the Italians have, not 
imnaturally, been slower even tlian the French to fathom 
the ways of the " incomprehensible John Bull." 
It is against England, too, that the principal force of German 
propaganda has been directed in all of the Allied countries. 
And it also chances (just why it is hard to say) that the most 
subtle form of intrigue— that of starting from countless 
recondite sources various and sundry rumours and hints and 
suggestions of dark import — has been tlie very one which 
the normally unsubtle Teuton should have conducted with 
the greatest linesse. Even to-day the few apparently inconse- 
quential words dropjjed by an innocent-looking Swiss pedlar 
will set the peasants of a F'rench village debating among 
themselves as to whether, after all, England is not getting 
rich while France is bleeding white, if the war is really wortli 
while, and if the best way would not be to make peace with 
the (iermans who— as someone has said — ^might even give 
back Alsace-Lorraine to " set right the whole terrible mis- 
take." 
It was largely sedulous sowings of this character which 
made the French so slovv to awaken to a full understanding of 
(he relentless purpose behind England's deliberate prepara- 
tion, and when it is understood that the combating of this 
insidious " propaganda of suggestion " is one of tlie most 
troublesome problems confronting France even at this hour, 
it may also be appreciated how pernicious the same sort of 
thing has been in Italy. When coal began to get scarce 
and expensive, the word was winged round that it was because 
" perfidious Albion " was " profiteering " on a ])roduct in 
which it had the ])rartical monopoly. And when the balance 
of trade against Italy began to force up the English exchange 
it was — as it is still — suggested that the greedy ICnglish 
were taking advantage of a poorer Ally's need to stock their 
already plethoric treasure . \'aults. 
Witii coal— when it can be obtained at all for domestic 
purposes— selling for more than wheat and potatoes had cost 
m peace time, and with the English exchange over forty 
])er cent, above the normal, it is by no means surprising that 
this ptrsistently pushed propaganda has had some efifect in 
those parts of Italy in which the principles underlying 
international finance and the law of supply and demand are 
not included in the common school curriculum. Indeed, 
it is a matter of surprise that the cumulative effect of the high 
price of coal, the rise in the exchange and German propaganda 
has not been greater than it really is. The philosopliical 
manner in which thi- bulk of the Italian poi)ulation has 
accepted and made the best of a trying situation sptakf 
volumes for its coimnon sense and spundness of instinct. 
Aniong the progrfssi\e Italians— the class whicJi had been 
described to ine as the " one that coinits in llic war "I 
founil a surprisingly sympathetic understanduig of England's 
problems as regards Italy, and a keen appreciation of the 
difficulties involved in their solution. A prominent manu- 
facturer of Genoa with whom I talked recently summed up 
the situation very succinctly. 
" England," he said, " was the traditional friend of Italv 
—the only one my country has ever had— and botli our 
pohtical and commercial relations with her have been marked 
by an unbroken record of square deahng and the goodwill 
incidental to square dealing. As a consetiuence, confidence 
in England is so deeply planted in the general run of the 
Italian people that it is" able now to put up with a situation 
it does not entirely understand. We business men — yi\w 
have dealt with England more than ever since the wax— do 
understand ; so do our Government, our army and the most 
of our educated classes. The rest— save for certain volubK' 
but almost negligible disaffected elements— will, because 
confidence in Ivngland was a legacy from their fathers and 
grandfathers, put U5) with more than they are likely to bc' 
called upon to put up with without that confidence locing 
seriously shaken." 
Just as the inauguration of the Somme offensive marked 
the beginning of an era of deeper appreciation of England 
in IVancx. so has the inauguration of the ruthless submarine 
war marked the beginning of a new understanding of England 
in Italy. Lloyd George's speech on the restriction of imjiorls 
brought home to Italy the depths of sacrifice which l':nglan<l 
was prepared to make to win the war. 
■' What England was ready to give up to keep on fighting 
—and to make it possible for her Allies to keep on fighting— " 
an Italian official of not especially progressive tendencies 
said to me a few days ago, " made us understand for the first 
time the comparative pettjness of our worries over coal and 
the exchange. That was the reason you have heard so little 
protest over our losses which must certainlv follow the cutting 
off of several hitherto profitable lines of export to the British 
Isles. The greatness of England's spirit — as it is now being 
revealed— has furnished a timely lesson for the Italian people 
to take to heart, and it is deeply gratifying that we reallv 
seem to be doing it." 
It would not do, in writing of Anglo-Italian relations, to 
overlook the fine impression that has been made upon botli 
civil and military Italy by the work of the British Red Cross 
Mission at the Front, and its various auxiliary services carried 
on by British workers in all parts of the country. This 
mission, working under the direction of Lieut. -Col: I^Jrd 
Monson. operates three ambulance and two X-Rav Unit-^. 
as well as a British-staffed hospital of 110 beds. The 
ambulance units have carried the sick and wounded of ten 
different Army Corps, and the splendid work of the drivers has 
won them a place in the affection of the ItaHan soldier com- 
parable to that held by the men of the American ambulanc<> 
in the heart of the French poilu. Much kindlv feeling has 
also been awakened among Italians generally by the work of 
the 500 or more British ladies who have devoted their tii'ne 
to the making of comforts for the hospitals, running posln-^ 
di rcstoro or refreshment rooms for wounded soldiers at the 
railway stations, and much other ])ractical effort. 
It is not easy to gather much that is definite regarding the 
popular feehng in Italy towards Russia. There is little love 
in the country for the" Slav on general principles, and there 
was even a certain degree of anxiety in the decade previous 
to the war as to whether or not Russia's Pan-Slavic am- 
bitions might prove a menace to Italian interests in the 
Balkans. A certain degree of anxiety still exists on thi- 
score, although it is hoped that Russia "will be willing to ha\-e 
Serbia compensated out of Bulgaria rather than from terri- 
tory on the Adriatic. 
Among Italian Liberals, too, Russia, as the most autocratir 
of the great nations, has never been popular, and it seems to 
me that there is hardly the willingness in Italy as in France 
and England to accept the reforms instituted by the Tsar 
since the outbreak of the war at their face value. 
There is no suggestion of anything approaching an anti- 
Russian feeling in Italy, and one even licars many expressions 
of admiration of and confidence in the great northern ally. 
It is rather that, the liberal-minded Italian has not been 
sufficiently stirred by either Russia's triumphs or disasters 
to take her " on trust" to tlie degree the average Frenchman 
and Briton has. None will be happier than he to see Russia 
do all that she has promised, but he is not going to give her 
his full confidence imtil — as an Italian writer expressed it to 
me — " we have evidence that the heart of the Great WTiite 
Bear is the same colour as his fur." 
