Government, it increased and prospered until no fewer than a quarter of a million of men were mustered and ready entirely at their own expense and by private enterprise--one of the most remarkable phenomena of the war. {311} CHAPTER X A RETROSPECT AND GENERAL SUMMARY Position of Italy--Fall of German colonies--Sea affairs--Our Allies. There has been no opportunity during this somewhat breathless narrative of the great events which will ever be associated with the names of Mons, the Marne, the Aisne, and Ypres to indicate those factors which were influencing the course of the war in other regions. They do not come properly within the scope of this narrative, nor does the author profess to have any special information concerning them, but they cannot be absolutely omitted without interfering with a correct view of the general situation. They will therefore be briefly summarised in retrospect before the reader is carried on into a more particular account of the trench warfare of the early winter of 1914. [Sidenote: Position of Italy.] The most important European event at the outbreak of the war, outside the movement of the combatants, was the secession of Italy from the Central Powers on the grounds that her treaty applied only to wars of defence whilst this was manifestly one of aggression. Italian statesmen could speak with the more decision upon the point since the plot had been unfolded before their eyes. A year previously they had been asked to join in an unprovoked {312} attack upon Serbia, and in refusing had given clear warning to their allies how such an outrage would be viewed. The Central Powers, however, puffed up by their vainglory and by the knowledge of their own secret preparations, were persuaded that they had ample strength to carry out their intentions without aid from their southern ally. Italy, having denounced the treaty, remained a neutral, but it was always clear that she would sooner or later throw in her strength with those who were at war with Austria, her secular enemy. It was not, however, until May 1915 that she was in a position to take a definite step. It should be remembered to her eternal honour that the time at which she did eventually come in was one which was very overcast for the Allies, and that far from fulfilling the cynical German prophecy that she would "hasten to the assistance of the conqueror," she took grave risks in ranging herself upon the side of her Latin sister. [Sidenote: Fall of German colonies.]