Paris 1919 - Margaret Macmillan [186]
It was not, it was widely agreed, a strong or effective delegation. As Macchi di Cellere, now brought over from Washington to lend his dubious assistance, explained grandly to an American, “Italy has no propaganda of her own; she is too old a country and too proud a race.” Few of its members developed the informal contacts with other delegations that the British and the Americans did. Among the delegation’s leaders, Antonio Salandra, a former prime minister, worried mainly about his health, while Orlando was affable but distracted. Sonnino remained aloof and secretive, guarding information even when it might have helped his fellow delegates. In his spare time he went for solitary walks. He refused to lobby on Italy’s behalf: “To resort to such methods would be to sink to the level of the small nations which went around begging territory from world opinion.” His relations with Orlando worsened as the months went on. There were furious scenes in which the normally controlled Sonnino went purple with rage.21
Divided among themselves, the Italians were also mistrustful of their allies. “They considered,” said a British diplomat, “they were not being treated as equals by the other Powers; they were attacked and criticized on all sides; they were told what was good for them, but not taken into real discussions.” Wilson, sniffed Sonnino, was a specie di clergyman, the United States, in Macchi di Cellere’s word, a “usurer” which wanted to dictate the peace. Toward the end of January, Wickham Steed reported that Wilson had had “a stormy interview” with Sonnino, “who seems to have lost his temper and to have gone to the length of telling Wilson not to meddle in European affairs but to stick to his American last.” 22
Among the Europeans, the Italians got on best with the British. Orlando admired Lloyd George: “His Celtic blood made him like us Mediterraneans in cleverness.” And there was little to divide their two countries. That was not the case with France. Italy owed its unification to France, but there was a feeling that France had exacted a high price when it took Nice and Savoy. Both countries aspired to be Mediterranean powers, and before the war they had clashed over Tunisia and Morocco. Italy had joined the Triple Alliance partly to find allies against France. As for those measurements which so preoccupied the world’s statesmen, Italy lagged behind France in steel, coal and population production.
1. Woodrow Wilson’s triumphal arrival in Paris before the start of the Peace Conference. His promise to establish a League of Nations to end war and to allow self-determination for nations raised tremendous expectations in Europe and farther afield, but disillusionment soon followed.
2. Georges Clemenceau (center) and David Lloyd George (right ), prime ministers of France and Britain, walk past a guard of honor. (The gentleman with them may be Lord Beaverbrook.) Both men had held their countries together during the war. They came to the peace negotiations with much public support but also a heavy burden of expectations.
3. David Lloyd George (center) and the British empire delegation, which caused him considerable trouble at the Peace Conference. General Jan Smuts, the influential South African foreign minister, is second from the left. Lloyd George is flanked by Arthur Balfour, his foreign secretary ( left), and the dyspeptic Billy Hughes of Australia (right). Winston Churchill is to the right of the table, and Henry Wilson, Lloyd George’s cynical military adviser,