_The unanimous verdict of the Irish jury at the inquest of the "Lusitania" victims._ [Illustration] "_THIS IS TOO BORING, DO SUGGEST SOMETHING NEW_" _Some German achievements in the first months of the Great War_: The violation of Belgium and Luxemburg. Massacre of civilian populations in Belgium and France. Bombardment by warships of open towns. Murder of civilians by air raids. Murder of civilians on the high seas. The introduction of liquid fire and poison gas. Enslavement of conquered civilian communities. [Illustration] "_HAVE ANOTHER PIECE?_" Without a drop of blood flowing, and without the life of a single Italian being endangered, Italy could have secured the long list of concessions which I recently read to the House--territory in Tyrol and on the Isonzo as far as the Italian speech is heard, satisfactions of the national aspirations in Trieste, a free hand in Albania, and the valuable port of Valona. VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG. _Reichstag, May 28, 1915._ [Illustration] _THE WOLF-TRAP_ _Italy: "You would make me believe that I shall have my cub given back to me, but I know I shall have to fight for it"_ The discussion continued for months from the first days of December to March, and it was not until the end of March that Barion Burian offered a zone of territory comprised within a line extending from the existing boundary to a point just north of the City of Trent. In exchange for this proposed cession the Austro-Hungarian Government demanded a number of pledges, including among them an assurance of entire liberty of action in the Balkans. _Note should be made of the fact that the cession of the territory around Trent was not intended to be immediately effective as we demanded, but was to be made only upon the termination of the European War._ SIGNOR SONNINO. _Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs._ _May 25, 1915._ [Illustration] _THE BROKEN ALLIANCE AND ITALY_ "_Twenty years and more you've forced me to wear this chain_" For the guardianship, therefore, of these treaties the government of the kingdom of Italy found itself constrained to notify the Imperial Austrian Government on the fourth of this month, May, 1915, that it must withdraw all of its proposals of agreement, denounce the treaty of the alliance, and declare its own liberty of action. Nor, on the other hand, was it more possible to leave Italy in isolation without security and without prestige, just at the moment in which the history of the world was taking on a decisive phase.