REVOLUTION CROSSES THE ADRIATIC 49
his designs, but because he realized that Fiume was ' anti-
state ' and the possible starting point for a reconquest of the
peninsula. For the moment d'Annunzio was in the lime-
light, reaping the prestige of his coup ; he had at his disposal
armed forces, and was himself a fighter. He must, therefore,
be humoured and treated with caution. In September
Mussolini started a subscription for Fiume, the proceeds of
which he diverted two months later, as we have seen, into
the pockets of his c little army5. He was not prepared to
play second fiddle, though, and if d'Annunzio marched on
Rome he would establish there, as at Fiume, his own
dictatorship. This must be prevented at all costs. In the
Popolo d* Italia of September 25 Mussolini wrote : c Revolution
is here. Begun in Fiume, it may be completed in Rome 3,
but in private he did his best to dissuade d'Annunzio from
any such project. Before the court of honour of the Milan
Press Association he stated, early in 1920 : * There existed
in Fiume a kind of club which called me a traitor to Italy,
because it knew that I discountenanced a march of any
description.'
Most people had considered the possibility of such a
march : particularly the legionaries, who sang verses about
going to Romejfartf lafesta to Nitti, and one of whose leaders,
Giurati, wrote to the Trieste fascia, on September 19, that
* the exploit of Fiume must be consummated in Rome ' ;
certain industrialists, too, who sent Borletti to Fiume to
spy out the land ; various royal and military cliques ; and
Admiral Millo himself, the governor of Dalmatia, who was
in close touch with the Duke of Aosta's circle. The
expectation was so general that Nitti handed over the com-
mand of the entire Adriatic coast to General Caviglia, in
order to prevent a possible landing of legionaries.
Only the socialists had not considered the possibility.
There was, it is true, a c conspiracy * early in 1920, which
was quickly suppressed. D'Annunzio had just appointed as
his secretary, to succeed the nationalist Giurati, Alceste de
Ambris, a syndicalist and leader of the Italian Labour Union,
which had supported the war, and whose adhesion the
General Confederation of Labour had consequently refused.
When the general railway strike broke out in January,