officers were insulted and even murdered in the course of the riots the Government did nothing but order them to go about unarmed. A decree was issued by the War Minister, inspired by the premier, amnestying deserters (Sept. 2), and thereby placing them on the same footing as soldiers who had done their duty. The previous Cabinet, moreover, had instituted a care- fully packed commission to inquire into the causes of the Caporetto disaster; and on July 24 it presented its report, apparently condoning the Socialist propaganda and attributing the whole blame to certain generals who were in bad odour with the Government. In consequence of its findings, Gens. Cadorna, Porro, Capello (commanding the II. Army), and Cavaciocchi (commanding the IV. Corps) were placed on the retired list, Montuori, Bongiovanni and Boccacci at the disposal of the Ministry without commands, while Gen. Brusati, who had been exonerated after the Trentino offensive of 1916, was recalled into service. The report intensified public depression, by recalling only the more painful aspects of Italy's military effort.
On Sept. 10 the Peace Treaty with Austria was signed at St. Germain-en-Laye. Italy thereby acquired the frontiers as- signed to her by the Pact of London, as far as the Peace Trentino and Alto Adige were concerned, with the ^Hh' y addition of the Sexten valley and the Tarvis district. Austria. Thus were the roads of invasion from the N. closed. The new territory was rich in water-power and forests, and contained some good agricultural and fruit-bearing land, a few mines and many fine mountain resorts. The population comprised 383,367 Italians 1 of a sturdy mountain stock and 235,165 Germans. But although the latter showed no Italian sympathies, the Government treated them with liberality and showed every intention of granting the widest freedom for their language and culture. But the public was so obsessed by the unsatisfactory state of the Adriatic question that the Austrian Peace, which gave Italy such considerable material and moral advantages, passed almost unnoticed. On Nov. 12 Senator Tittoni returned from Paris and resigned both from the Peace Delegation and the Foreign Office, on account of his bad health, and was appointed president of the Senate and Italian rep- resentative on the League of Nations Council. He was succeeded at the consulate by Senator Scialoja, the eminent Neapolitan jurist. It was under increasingly onerous economic conditions throughout the country that the elections of Nov. 1919 were held. Wheat had risen from $1.01 per 60 Ib. in 1913-4 to $2.40 in 1919, and the value of the dollar had risen from 5.20 lire to 13.07. Freights had risen from 35. per 480 Ib. to 173., with the pound more than doubled in value. The Government made the wheat trade a State monopoly; it tried to reduce consumption by mixing wheat-flour with that of cheaper cereals and rationing the supply. It requisitioned home-grown wheat at a price below the cost of production, but as it had to pay for imported wheat (with Russia and Rumania no longer available as sources of supply) at the market price, it could only sell it cheap by paying the difference; thus wheat-growing was discouraged at home and the State budget involved in a deficit of many milliards. The war had also caused a serious disorganization of transport. Locomotives, trucks and permanent way had been over-used, coal had risen enormously in price and could not be obtained in sufficient quantities nor of the best quality, so that the train service had been reduced, and the staff, while increasing in numbers from 154,000 in 1914 to 180,000 in 1919, had become less efficient and more undisciplined. Thefts of goods on the railways were increasingly frequent, and the innumerable restrictions on trade made life ever harder. By the new electoral law the country was divided into 54 constituencies, each return- ing from 5 to 20 members, and the elector voted not for an individual but for a list. The object of the system was to prevent elections from being based on purely local interests, but its weak point was that the voter could not scratch any name he did not like, but had to swallow the list as a whole; he could add a preferential vote to any particular candidate, and this gave rise to bitter rivalry among 1 Austrian pre-war statistics.
candidates in the same list. The consequence was that a very large percentage of the voters, mostly in the constitutional parties, abstained.
The two parties which presented themselves to the polls with a complete organization and a definite programme were the Socialists and Catholics. The former held a Congress in Bologna on Oct. 5-8, where they decided to participate in the coming elections with a revolutionary " maximalist " programme, with the object of abolishing capitalism and instituting a Socialist republic on the Russian model; only a small section led by Prof. Bardiga declared for abstention from the polls and for a revolu- tion by armed risings. The Congress also adhered to the Moscow Third International. The Popular or Catholic party had made rapid progress, and on June 14 1919 a general Congress had been held at Bologna where a resolution in favour of going to the country with its own candidates, instead of cooperating with the other parties, was voted by a large majority. But during its first year of existence a more extreme tendency appeared within its ranks, headed by Sig. Miglioli, whose principles and tactics differed but little from those of the ultra Socialists; the extrem- ists were particularly active among the peasantry, especially in the province of Treviso, parts of Lombardy and Tuscany, and their agitations and excessive demands often led to strikes and riots, in spite of the disapproval of the bishops and even of the Vatican. The various constitutional groups were split up without a programme; the Government was discredited and unpopular, the foreign situation of the country in a hopeless tangle, and everyone more or less discontented.
The elections were held on Nov. 16 1919, without serious incidents. The result was that the Official, or Maximalist, Socialists elected 156 members, and the Catholics 101. These were the two most successful parties; the Republicans were reduced to 8 or 9, while the Combattenti won some 30 seats. The Socialist members were by no means all authentic " proletarians "; 50 of them were lawyers, a large proportion " organizers," and only 19 more or less genuine working men. Quite a number were wealthy, and at least eight were millionaires.
On the opening of Parliament (Dec. i), the King was greeted with enthusiasm by the majority, but the Socialist deputies shouted " Long live Socialism ! " and left the Chamber. As a protest against this offence to the King, popular Atftatton demonstrations were held outside Montecitorio, and a number of Socialist members were attacked and injured. The leaders of the party ordered a general strike throughout Italy as a protest: work was stopped in many towns, and there were riots in some places, which often took the form of assaults by bands of hooligans on isolated officers. At Mantua on Dec. 3 a crowd of anarchists succeeded for a few hours in making them- selves masters of the town: they burnt the prison and let loose 200 criminals, pillaged a number of shops and committed several murders. The next day, reenforcements having arrived, order was restored. The strike ended in most places on the 2nd, but in a few cases continued until the 4th or sth. Sig. Nitti's position was certainly not strengthened by the result of the elections. The Socialists rejected his advances while taking his gifts, and constituted a noisy and violent opposition; the Catholics, although bitterly hostile to the Socialists, could not be relied upon to support the Cabinet, as they had their own policy to further; the mass of Constitutionalists were divided into many groups, some of which, such as those of Nationalist sympathies, were in opposition, while others were but lukewarm supporters. The Ministry remained in office because there was no other combination ready to succeed it.
On the Adriatic coast, meanwhile, further incidents were occurring; the French base was withdrawn from Fiume (Oct. 2), and the Yugoslav mob at Spalato continued to attack the Italian inhabitants under the eyes of the American admiral. A series of fresh proposals to unravel the Adriatic tangle were made. Early in Oct. Sen- ator Tittoni had suggested to D'Annunzio a modus vivendi where- by the Italian regular troops would occupy the town pending the settlement of the problem at Paris, Italy undertaking not
