While the Italian statesmen declare that they had made their position at the opening of the war perfectly clear to Germany and Austria, the world at large lacked knowledge of these negotiations upon which to base satisfactory judgment of Italy's action--or lack of action--at this time. Italy was in no position to go further than this. The unsettled state of political and popular opinion and her lack of equipment for war forced her to wait; but while she temporized she made ready. In reality, the Italian diplomats maintained that they took a definite position upon their charge that Austria had violated the terms of the Triple Alliance, and that from this stand they never receded. Negotiations with the other members of the alliance received a check, also, through the death of San Giuliano on October 16, 1914. On his deathbed the foreign minister declared his sole regret was that he had not lived to see the day of Italy's entrance into complete national unity. * * * * * CHAPTER LI NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE CENTRAL POWERS During the fall and winter of 1914, the Italians had seemed about equally divided in favor of intervention and neutrality. While a large majority of the common people clamored for war, the neutralists probably included the larger proportion of influential citizens. Among the latter were the extreme clericals, who distrusted France and Russia on religious grounds, aristocrats who viewed Germany as a bulwark against socialism; bankers with German connections, and a great body of the middle class who dreaded a war that would interfere with their comfort and prosperity. A genuine admiration for Germany's military prowess, exemplified in the successive victories of 1914, offset to a large extent traditional antipathy to Austria. Nevertheless, interventionist sentiment steadily gained, and Germany, recognizing the trend, organized a determined effort to keep Italy on the side of the alliance. German agents invaded Italy and conducted a campaign of propaganda through the neutralist newspapers and through more secret labors among various organizations influential in their control of public sentiment.