The New York herald., 1922-04-30
|D'ANNUNZIO URGED
TO LEAD FASCISTI
Poet-S0ldier Asked to Return
to Fiume and Assume Com
mand of Organization.
PREFERS A QUIET LIFE
Home on Lake Garda Is Be-
sieged by Visitors-Enjoys
Vigorous Health.

Special Correspondence Of THE NEW Yoxx
HuRALD.
New York Herald Bureau.
Rome, April Is.
While italy waits impatiently for the
return to public life. he is living calmly
In his villa on Lake Garda. That is, he
is living as calmly as a man can who is
constantly besieged by Fascist who
want him to return to Fiume. women
who want him to fall in love with them
and manufacturers of perambulators
who want him to invent a name for a
new product.
D'Annunzo's villa is appropriately
called Palladio. which is Italian for,
fortress. 1t is the same in which Wag-
ner lived for several years An intimate
friend of the soldier-poet who recently
visited him at Lake Garda has given
THE New YORK HERALD details of mis-
daily life.
D'Annunzio since his spectacular with
drawal from Fiume in 1920 has been a
voluntary exile from active political life.
He, however. keeps intimately in touch
with what is going on and it is agreed
that he is merely waiting the opportune
moment for dramatic reentry into
politics.
The temperamental soldier left the
| Fiume incident to founder, diSgusted
with political intrigues and the ingrati-
| tude Of tile world Since then he has
adopted a rather critical attitude toward
| the Fiscisti declaring that they are a
party tending toward civil war. when
! what Italy most needs is unity and
! harmony between hand and brain work
ers. He has never abandoned the idea
! that F'iume belongs by right to Italy
| but he expressed his conviction that the
| recent coup was an unwisc political
move He sent wreath of flowers for
member Of the Fascist killed in the
| last Fiume incident, with a line of re-
gret that the soldier had wasted his life
failing to await the hour.
Besfegcd by Visitors.
Meanwhile Palladio is constantly be-
| sieged by visitors. D'Annunzio is to tie
| Nationalists what Bismarck was to the
| Germans half century ago. Every ma
| tionalst enterprise calls upon him to
lend the power OF his name. Some Of
the Fascist want him to come to Fiume
and assume command. Others want him
to become the president of a sort Of
| military Italian republic. Very recently
the picturesque Giuletti turned over to
him his position as president of all the
seamen, and Gino Baidesi, the Social
Democratic labor leader, had mysteri-
GUS talk of seven hours with him, in
which D'Annunzio expressed the convic-
ton that the reconstruction of Europe
was possible only through hard work,
and that the world must have more re-
spect for labor.
There are visitors of another kind
Lately a Tunisian princess and a Nor
wegian poetess arrived on the same day
to lay their homage and their hearts at
his feet DAnnunzio's new wife. the
pianist Baccara, has an unfriendly eye
for his old fellow adventurers but she
has all guns set for aspiring females
| But they continue to come
D'Annunzio's wife is unpopular with
the Fascist, who declare that their
former leader is growing soft in her
arms. while issues die out un.
championed. They even planned to kid
nap him and take him out into the glor-
ious combat again. but the plot was dis
covered by the police and nipped in the
bud.
Besides wis wife the soldier-poet is
guarded by his three servants, who by q
curious coincidence are called Dante,
Virgil and Livy. The whole neighbor-
ing village takes possessive interest
in the Commentators" He is divinity
to the old men, whose common greeting
is, What is the Commentators doing
to-day?" The young man assured a cor
dial reception by the cafe groups is the
one who can report that he saw Dan
~ f11.r, 4.
walking with his secretary.
Works Hard Every Day.
D'Annunzio is in vigorous health and
works enthusiastically. The rumor that
he has become addicted to the cocaine
habit is untrue. He has smoked only
since the war.
For several hours in the day Dan
nunzio sits at great desk, hard at
Ia h-o