Lodge, Reed and D'Annunzio.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It is with great pleasure that I take up the sword in defence of your position regarding the soldier-poet of Italy. Your editorial on Gabricle D'Annunzio was unbiased and moderate. Yet, I frankly admit, such a weak position is to me untenable.

At the outset I recognize that D-Annunzio is a poet and a soldier of more than ordinary ability, whose pen was fired by the late war. His spirit after the disaster of Caporetto, it is admitted, was admirable and buoyant. But with that, everything in his defence has been said; and, taken by and large, that is not much, for any man who failed to find spiritual inspiration in the late war cannot justify his existence on this earth.

Now, in the first place, D'Annunzio is neither by birth nor by race Italian. He is no more Italian than is Trotsky Russian. Yet, unfortunate as it is, he is able to lead a small but solid part of the Italian people in his ultra-imperialistic "irredenta" policy. On the other hand, in view of the support that the Italian people are giving to the high-handed policy of the Allies in the Near-East, this is not so extraordinary.

I think it unnecessary for me to get into the arguments for and against Italy's complete annexation of Fiume. It certainly ought to be recognized (the late war is a painful example) that the peoples of any nation--especially agricultural nations--must have a natural and accessible outlet to the sea. Italy's uncompromising control over Fiume and the surrounding country would virtually bottle up Jugo-Slavia, Austria, Hungary and Czecho-Slovakia.

Again, it is just as well not to say too much on D'Annunzio before the war. The facts of his vile existence are there, if anyone wants them. Any number of travellers in Italy will testify to that. Yet, it is almost as bad to believe what insidious press dispatches have to say on this Italian, nay, international outlaw. And so is the intelligent public, as usual, caught between two fires.

Before closing--and here I want to make it clear that this, my first and final criticism, of Gabriele D'Annunzio in your columns--I cannot help making one recommendation. If I am wrong in the frank opinion of the tribunal of posterity--and D'Annunzio is what he candidly claims to be--the only idealist now living--the world ought without a whimper to accept the inspiring leadership of Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and James A. Reed of Missourf.  JOHN O. CRANE '21