Thomas Nelson Page to Woodrow Wilson

I have kept Colonel House as fully informed of conditions here in Italy since his arrival in Europe as I could possibly do by mail. I had hoped very much that he would find time to come down to Italy before returning home as one can learn so much better on the spot just what it is important to know than one can from even the fullest report. He however wrote that he was obliged to return without prolonging his journey to Italy.

I do not think that it is quite understood how important a link Italy forms in the chain and I am sure that there is a deep underlying feeling among Italians that this is not known, or if not known is not duly considered. I have come to know Italy pretty well; I know the Italian weaknesses and vanities "sins, negligencies and ignorances" which make themselves very apparent, but I know also what lies underneath and is not so apparent; that under certain impulses they are capable of great strength and fortitude; Both have been shown in these last few weeks. First the weakness, a weakness more in conditions of long standing than in character, which led up to the break in their line at the end of October, permitting the Austrians to come pouring through like a flood through a broken levee; and secondly the curious unseen and unexpected strength which enabled the Italians to change Commanders and make a stand damming back this flood and saving the rest of the country.

Now the question is can Italy hold her present line. All formal reports say that she can hold the Piave line; certainly she has held it against the prophecy of many who thought it impossible and she is reported to be getting stronger and more confident all the time. My own opinion, which I admit is of very little value, is that Germany and Austria will not relax their efforts until they have thrown all the weight they are capable of against that line and broken through, if it is possible to do so. At present they are engaged in two great efforts directed against this line. One is the massing of heavy forces in the mountain region against Mount Grappa, which is the key to whole Italian left, while they are digging themselves in across the Venetian plains so as to hold definitively what they have got. The second is the massing of all the forces at their command against the moral of the Italian people through every form of propaganda and underhanded means conceivable.

Now the question is can Italy withstand both of these attacks. She lost substantially a third of her war equipment and what else she lost will probably not be known until after the war. One item that I heard of on what I deem good authority, was about 11 millions of bushels of grain. She has now only food enough to last her through January. The Austrians and Germans are making the most of these conditions on both of the lines that I have indicated. They are pushing, pushing against the Italian lines all the time and at times according to the report of the highest military authority in that region, they have resorted to tying prisoners and civilians, men women and children arm to arm and driving them before the advancing Austrian troops as a screen. This would seem too impossible to believe, but I have it from a man of very high character who says that the War Ministry here received it in a formal report from the Supreme Command. The other form of attack against the morale of the people is equally insidious, if not equally barbarous. They are using the recent Maximilist proposals for an armistice and holding out suggestions of peace to Italy with great astuteness, and at times hints come to me which go to show that in some quarters their efforts are not without some success.

There is no great love between Italy and the other Allies. Italians who know the history of Italy's relations to France and England also, for that matter, know that nations look out for themselves and I may add that up to the present they have no more confidence in us than they have in those Governments. Italians who do not know history know little except conditions which surround them at present, and it is of these conditions that the Austrians and Germans are taking advantage in the present cricis seeking to undermine by every means in their power the stability which has established that defensive line along the Piave river.

The newspapers have given only a few glittering generalities in regard to the conclusions of the Inter-Allied Conference at Paris; and the Italian Ministers who participated in it, not having yet returned, nothing is known here in any detail of what was effected by the Conference, save of a general consensus of views in regard to prosecuting the war, and rendering aid each to the other where it appears most needed.

It is said that Orlando, the present Premier, is breaking away from his former alleged close allegiance to Giolitti and will stand forth more clearly for fighting the war to a finish, which is natural as it is hard to believe that men like Orlando and Nitti, when they have attained to their present positions in the public esteem will be content to play second violin to one who certainly in no case would consent to be other than the leader.

It is further said that Baron Sonnino will not hearafter have as free a hand in the control of the Government as he had in the past when there was no one to replace him, and I hear a report, which fits in with many things that have come to my knowledge, that the Vatican forces are being united to attack Sonnino when the Chamber meets about the middle of this month, or as soon as the present danger caused by the Austrian and German invasion has passed its crucial point. One thing is certain, the Vatican is as alert as it ever was in recent times in regard to the present political situation, and from all I learn they feel that the present Russian situation has opened a great opportunity to them to reassert the direct power of the Vatican over the Russian members of the Roman Church. They never miss a move and many moves are being made at present in which unless rumor belies it the Vatican is interested. I sent a telegram home a few days since giving the substance of an interview which had been given me by a representative of the Vatican, one of the Under Secretaries of State, to the representative of the Associated Press denouncing as atrocious the charges made by the London "Morning Post" that the Pope or the Vatican had been concerned in the propaganda to break down the war spirit in Italy.

The representative of the Associated Press was not certain that his report to the press would get through and I thought the interview interesting enough to send home as it represented the interest which the Vatican is at present taking in political affairs. A day or two afterwards the Holland Minister came to see me and said that he heard that the Pope had written Mr. Lansing a letter. He had heard it he said from a Minister to the Vatican; he would not tell me who it was, but said it was not the Holland Minister to the Vatican. I told him I knew nothing whatever of it and have heard to-day that the Vatican denies that there is any truth in it. I also hear that the Concistory which is usually called in the month of December has been deferred and will not be held until towards the end of January when it is expected that the Vatican will have the full text of all the documents which the Maximilist Government is now publishing summaries of. And I come back now to the question of Italy's ability to hold out. She cannot hold out unless she is fed and unless she is furnished with certain things which are necessary for her defense, among them guns and certain raw materials. No matter what is said about it and no matter whether all that is said about it be true or not, the fundamental thing is that she must be fed and sustained or in January or February or March or some time soon she will give way and there will be an end to her part in the war. And with this, Germany and Austria will get a new courage to keep on hoping to break down France next. It is for this reason that I have been so earnest in my suggestions that we declare war against Austria and the other Allies of Germany unless the situation in America be such as to render it on consideration of everything bearing on the subject unfeasible. Whatever can be done at this time to fortify the Italian people should be done, and unless they are fortified I do not know what will happen. What they have done since they made their stand on the Piave is worthy of the best days of the Resorgimento. I often get exasperated over the vanity and selfishness displayed in certain of the Italian newspapers and over their absolute ignorance of everything that relates to the United States, and, for that matter, to the rest of the world outside of Italy, but one thing is certain in these last weeks they have shown qualities which would have done honor to any people in any period of the world's history. I cannot say more than this and in justice to them I cannot say less. I am very desirous that we should send here a military Commission of Observers with the Italian Army. We have sent two officers, Colonels Mott and Heintzelman as observers with the French troops now in Italy, and we ought to have some with the Italian troops. Every other country engaged in war against the Central Empires has a Military Commission at the Italian Front, and many of them are first class officers, several with the rank of General and Colonel. The Italians are extremely sensitive and the time will come when our omission in this regard will be taken and used with great effect in Italy against us.When I have said to men in the Government here who have asked about our declaring war against Austria, that we had in old times a traditional friendship for Hungary the answer has been that Hungary now is the major part of Austria and is, if anything, bitterer and more determined to ruin Italy than the other Kingdom; as in recent times she feels that she has the opportunity of becoming the really dominant power in south-eastern Europe. And this seems to me to be true. The old relation has changed. The Bosnian and Herze govinian troops have created greater excesses in Italy than any others and the Hungarian troops are said to be far worse than the German-Austrian troops.With this I must stop and I send to you my best Christmas wishes and the assurance of my appreciation of the incomparable service that you have rendered, not only to our country and people, but to all countries and to the whole human race in the work that you have performed.

It has been not only a great pleasure but a great privilege to me to serve under you and to carry out to the best of my ability in the sphere in which I have worked that which I believed was the spirit of the high service which you have consecrated to mankind.

Believe me always most sincerely yours,
Tho. Nelson Page

The President,
The White House,
Washington D. C.