unreliability of the Jugoslavs (Croats) in the struggle against Austria-Hungary, they being accused of double-dealing with Vienna, and so on.
Accordingly, the political aspect of my journey to Italy presented considerable difficulties. The Government circles were naturally guarded in their attitude, and a part of the public was mistrustful. On the other hand there were certain Italian circles who welcomed my visit as an opportunity for them to try to use the Czechoslovaks as a counter-weight against the Jugoslavs. They wanted to show that if the Jugoslavs were tractable, and, as it was occasionally expressed, as reliable as we were, Italy would act in the same manner towards them as towards us. But this might have constituted an argument against the claims of the Jugoslavs. The whole month of my stay in Italy was spent in discussions along these lines. All my explanations and endeavours to bring forward the Czechoslovak question merely brought a reiterated statement of the Italian case against the Jugoslavs. There was considerable ignorance of Jugoslav affairs, together with unjust suspicions of the Serbs, the Jugoslav Committee, Trumbić, Hinković, Supilo, etc. With certain of the nationalists these suspicions were deliberately exaggerated. Chauvinism was regarded by the majority quite sincerely as being right and proper; it dominated the greater part of the Italian public. The only reaction against this tendency proceeded from the associates of Bissolati and Salvemini. But there were judicious elements also in Liberal Parliamentary circles, who were seeking a method of reasonable agreement with the Jugoslavs, based upon fair compromise.
Perhaps I overestimated the extent to which this feeling in Italy involved a danger to us also. My fear was that in the end Italy, a country which should have been at the head of the struggle for the destruction of the Habsburg monarchy, might, through her objection to the Jugoslavs, choose the very opposite policy. That was the question which I often asked myself, bearing in mind Sonnino’s policy, the irritability of Italian public opinion, and the prejudiced attitude of nationalist circles towards the Jugoslavs. I then had quite a high opinion of the influence exerted by Giolitti’s group and politicians such as Nitti, who, as late as the spring of 1918, did not believe in the break-up of Austria-Hungary.
As Italy, both official and unofficial, was then openly
