physicians and patients alike obviously suffering from equal impotence.
All these things I pondered, in much fuller detail, as I was weighing in Rome the question whether Italy would or could join Austria and Germany against the Allies. My answer, dictated by my own philosophy of Italian history and civilization, was always: “It is not possible.”
Work in Rome.
In Rome there was a chance of getting news and of establishing political relationships. Diplomatic representatives of all countries were there, in many cases two from each country, one being accredited to the Vatican. First of all I approached the Serbian Minister, Lyuba Mihailovitch, and the Southern Slav politicians. Some Southern Slav members of the Austrian Parliament had already joined other well-known Southern Slavs abroad, and their numbers were constantly growing. I was the only Czech Member of Parliament outside the country—to my regret, because a Member of Parliament is thought, in the West, to be a more serious politician than a professor. Therefore I did a thing which I should never have dreamed of doing at home, or had there been no war. I had visiting cards printed as follows: “Professor T. G. Masaryk, Czech Member of Parliament, President of the Czech Progressive Group in the Austrian Reichsrat.” Mestrovitch, the Southern Slav sculptor, who was then in Rome, was also a political asset. The Italians had recognized and esteemed him as an artist since the Venice Exhibition in the spring of 1914. Working beside him were Dr. L. Voinovitch and Professor Popovitch. Among Southern Slav members of the Austrian or Hungarian Diets and Parliaments were Dr. Trumbitch and Dr. Nikola Stoyanovitch, while Supilo was in London. By a lucky chance he had been in Switzerland when war broke out and had stayed abroad. Of the Slovenes, Mr. Goritchar, a former Austro-Hungarian Consular official, was in Rome as well as Dr. Županitch of the Belgrade University Library. So as to elude the Austrian spies, we met late at night at the Serbian Legation, discussed the whole position and agreed to work closely together. The idea of a corridor between Slovakia and Croatia interested the Southern Slavs in Rome, though I thought that, at best, it should only be mooted as a tactical move. Several Southern Slavs took it up, but Trumbitch was reserved and wished it to be left to the Czechs.
