It was under these circumstances that on September 28th I signed our agreement of alliance with France, arranged for a Government to be constituted and a proclamation of independence to be issued, besides settling with the Italian Embassy in Paris the details of my journey to Rome for completing similar negotiations with Italy. I left for Rome on the evening of October 1st in a very hopeful mood. Although I saw that events were taking a precipitant course, I still did not believe that the end of the war was at hand—in fact it is hardly likely that such a belief was entertained by anyone around us in the Allied countries or even in the camp of the Central Powers. From the circumstances as they were then I judged that we had a few weeks for realizing all our plans, and I wanted to make all preparations so that the solemn day for the proclamation of our national and State independence should fall on November 8, 1918.
(b) My Third Journey to Rome. Draft of an Agreement of Alliance with Italy. Visit to the Italian Front
143
Having obtained Masaryk’s consent to my proposed course of action, I made all the necessary preparations in Paris, and then turned my attention to Italian affairs. I regarded it as essential to proceed in Italy on the same lines as we had followed in France and England, i.e. by preparing the ground for realizing our political plans, partly by a political agreement, partly by personal interview.
The dispute between Italy and the Jugoslavs was still exerting a considerable influence on our affairs. Since the British proclamation on August 9th with regard to us, and the progressive collapse of the enemy front in the Balkans, this dispute was tending rather to become more accentuated against Sonnino. At the beginning of September, through Bissolati’s initiative, the Jugoslav question had become a subject for official negotiations within the Italian Government. Finally, the protracted dispute was settled by Sonnino’s withdrawal, the credit for which is due to Bissolati and Orlando. On September 8, 1918, the Italian Government passed a resolution that Italy would identify herself with the principle of complete liberation and unification of the Jugoslavs. This resolution was, for a time, withheld from the public, but
