ABSTRACT

Orlando, who was return to Italy to confront his Parliament, begun quietly with a sober review of the Italian claims in the light of the resolutions taken by the Supreme Council. In Dalmatia, however, he insisted that Italy's demands were modest, including only a small port, and leaving to Jugoslavia the ports of Spalato, Ragusa and Cattaro. Orlando only asked that in Dalmatia 'the existing agreement' should be adhered to and that was his only hint of the secret Anglo-French-Italian agreement of April 26, 1915 which had brought Italy into the war. The Treaty of London was broken by a very long and eloquent and well-balanced protest by Wilson, starting from the fact that France, Great Britain and Italy, which had undoubtedly borne the brunt of the war, had found the co-operation of the United States essential to victory. The latter had been in the war from the outset, when he had taken a heavy responsibility in rejecting Austria's offers.