communication with the National Council. In May an attempt was made to secure the consent of the Italian Government for the use of the volunteer corps on the Salonika front, but this was unsuccessful.
The progress of the corps was then hindered for a short time because some of the prisoners were employed for agricultural work, and the remainder were transferred to Padula, south of Salerno. Matters improved, however, towards the autumn, and when I visited them in September 1917 I had every reason to be satisfied with their organization and with the extensive work—propagandist, educational, and political—which they were carrying on. On that occasion I arranged with them what further steps they should take and generally encouraged them to continue their preparations for establishing anational army. At that time there were more than 10,000 men in the camp, and the volunteer corps was beginning to increase enormously. In January 1918 its strength exceeded 5,000, while by the following April some 14,000 men had entered its ranks. They were all drafted into the army and saw active service.
Even then I realized that our volunteers in Italy, by their remarkable initiative and enthusiasm, were performing invaluable work. It was largely due to their efforts that we politicians were able at the opportune moment to achieve success in our negotiations for the official recognition of the army.
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The work thus accomplished in Italy caused the Italians to modify their original attitude of reserve towards us. From June 1917 onwards Brancaccio, during his visits to me, repeatedly urged that I should not limit myself to negotiating with France, but that we ought to co-operate more with Italy. It was he, too, who suggested that I ought to proceed once more to Rome, and take some definite steps in connection with our prisoners.
On the occasion of the Inter-Allied Conference in the spring and summer of 1917 in London and Paris, when Brancaccio discussed matters personally with Sonnino, he assured me that the ground was prepared in Italy for successful action, and that from what he had heard he was sure that Sonnino, like the French and Russians, would liberate our prisoners, and perhaps even allow them to join our army in France.
