The accession of Siam to the ranks of the Allies did not make any great difference from a military point of view, but it was another evidence of the general world feeling with regard to the Germans and their encroachments in all parts of the world. Germany had tried its best to keep these nations from participation in the war, but not only had her propaganda failed but the feeling of these Oriental peoples was strongly anti-German. Much of this feeling, it is readily seen from their statements and their private letters, comes from a personal resentment of the boorish attitude of the individual German. By the end of 1918 the Teuton influence in the Orient had completely disappeared. CHAPTER XII THE DEFEAT AND RECOVERY OF ITALY None of the surprises of the World War brought such sudden and stunning dismay to the Entente Allies as the news of the Italian disaster beginning October 24, 1917, and terminating in mid-November. It is a story in which propaganda was an important factor. It taught the Allies the dangers lying in fraternization between opposing armies. During the summer of 1917 the second Italian Army was confronted by Austrian regiments composed largely of war-weary Socialists. During that summer skillful German propagandists operating from Spain had sown the seeds of pacificism throughout Italy. This was made easy by the distress then existing particularly in the villages where food was scanty and complaints against the conduct of the war were numerous. The propaganda extended from the civilian population to the army, and its channel was directed mainly toward the Second Army encamped along the Isonzo River. [Illustration: THREE MESSENGERS OF DESTRUCTION FOR TRIESTE This remarkable photograph was taken from one French airplane just as another had released three aerial torpedoes in a combined bombing and observation raid on Trieste, the great Austrian naval base. The photograph itself, showing details of enemy activity on the waterfront, was of considerable value to the intelligence division of the Italian army.] As a consequence of the pacifists’ preachments both by words of mouth and document, the Second Army was ready for the friendly approaches that came from the front lines of the Austrians only a few hundred yards away. Daily communication was established and at night the opposing soldiers fraternized generally. The Russian doctrine that an end of the fighting would come if the soldiers agreed to do no more shooting, spread throughout the Italian trenches. This was all part of a plan carefully mapped out by the German High Command. When the infection had spread, the fraternizing Austrian troops were withdrawn from the front trenches and German shock troops took their places. [Illustration: AREA OF THE FLOW AND EBB OF ITALY’S MILITARY SUCCESS From the Carso plateau to the Piave line.]