Las Vegas optic., 1914-09-04
UPON THE QUEEN
OF ITALY IT
DEPENDS
1T is SHE WHO is KEEPING HER
COUNTRY OUT OF THE
WAR

1taly's policy toward the great Euro
pean powers at this moment lies in
large measure with its queen. This
statement may provoke an incredulous
smile on this side of the Atlantic,
where the citizens of the republic are
unaccustomed to feminine influence
in questions Of high governmental i'm
port, but it is a statement neverthe-
less true. Queen Helena has unusual
influence upon her husband, King Vic
tor Emmanuel She can have the de-
Gliding voice with him If she cares to
use it at such a critical time when
there is so much to be said in favor of
Italy's action, whether it be for or
against its former allies of the Triple
Alliance.
The king rules under the restrictions
of constitutional sovereignty, but he
exercises a directing sway over his
cabinet, the parliament and the people.
The nations present policy of neutral
ity is his personal policy, backed by
Prime Minister Salandra, a newcomer
III the cabinet, and strenuously oppos-
ell by Foreign Secretary Di San Giu-
liano, the strongest man of the gov
eminent in office for several years.
ard openly friendly TO the Triple AL
lance.
The question of Italy's policy may
be in the hands of the queen. While
the diplomats are playing their game
at Rome she must be listening to the
dictates of her divided heart. No diplo-
mat of consequence in Europe is so
i'll informed as to think that because
she was born the daughter of King
Nicholas of Montenegro and brought
up at the court of Russia, whose czar
protects her father, she is unequivoc-
ally for the political cause of the Slavs.
She is not the tool of Russia
political envoy at Rome of the great
Slav empire which educated her and
settled her upon a throne. She does
not blindly obey the wishes Of her
father to use any and every means
| of persuasion upon her husband the
king and his advisers to win Italy's
influence for the Slavs. She was born
in the Slav race; she has married into
the Italian
She is the one queen of Europe
most ideally a true wife and mother.
Her husbands interest rests safely in
her keeping. She will never betray
him that the Slavs may triumph Her
little son is Italian and the sovereignty
of Italy, will be his some day. His
mother, bending over his bedside ev-
cry night as she tucks in the coverlet
with those busy, kind, practical hands,
performing the sweet service which is
honored by the lowly but often scorn-
ed by the high, is thinking these days
of the future of her son, not of the
future of the Slav.
One can rest assured that she is
thinking of the future of the Italian
people also. She has lived among
them is years and spent IL of them
after her marriage without going back
| to her old home in Montenegro, a
comparatively short distance away,
and a land which she loves. 1t was a
sacrifice she made III order to prove
to her husbands subjects that she had
come to dwell among them and re-
main as one of them, and that her
marriage did not mean that she was
to be open to the predominating die
Itation of Russia in Montenegro.
If Italy makes a move now because
the king urges and the queen coun-
sells, it will be solely because it seems
best for the future power of the ma
tion, not because it will give power to
the Slavs. No greater wrong could be
done to Queen Helena's gentle, stead
fast nature than to believe that any
thing else could possibly be. She is
lovely in person, as all the world
knows, endowed beyond that with
force of character This is the expla
nation of her influence upon the king
Russia has sent as a special am
bassador to Rome, Count Witte, once
prime minister, one of its most liberal
statesmen and probably the one mosi
acceptable to Italy. He was conven
iently passing along that way on his
return home from Biarritz. He has nc
public instructions, hence is not off
csally called a special ambassador.
| By a strange coincidence Frances
minister of foreign affairs. Theophile
asAz-