IV
REVOLUTION CROSSES THE ADRIATIC
ON September 12, 1919, while Nitti, the President of
the Council, all unawares, was speaking in the
Chamber, he received a telegram informing him
that d'Annunzio had occupied Fiume. The fate of this
city had never ceased to handicap the whole of Italy's
foreign policy. On April 26, after the theatrical withdrawal
of Orlando and Sonnino, the National Council of Fiume
had proclaimed the annexation of the town to Italy and
placed itself under the orders of the king's representative,
General Grazioli. Orlando and Sonnino having hastily
returned to Paris the day before, d'Annunzio, who had
come to Rome to organize and lead the agitation in favour
of annexation, made a flamboyant speech on May 6 from
the top of the Capitol He appealed to Italian heroism,
unfurled the flag that had covered the remains of Randaccio,
the airman killed on the Timavo, and declared that he
would present it to the city of Trieste, after consecrating it
in Italian Fiume. The Orlando government, caught
between Rome and Paris, resigned as soon as possible, while
the newspaper war went on, and each successive attempt of
the Peace Conference at compromise over the Adriatic
question fizzled out.
The Nitti ministry was formed on June 22. The nation-
alists were frenzied with rage, since all hope of forcing the
government's hand over Fiume had to be abandoned,
Consequently their anger was vented on the new ministry,
and on Parliament, which d'Annunzio wanted to replace
by * a form of representation which would bring to the
fore the real producers of national wealth, the real sources
of national strength'. Thus the policy of expansion was
linked with nationalism and anti-parliamentarism, thanks
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