DEFIANT POET.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1919, Page 5

DEFIANT POET.

D'ANNUNZIO ACTIVE AGAIN. SEEKING FURTHER TROUBLE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 29, 7.45 p.m. London, Dec. 28. The Milan correspondent of the Times states that after a Council meeting at Fiume, the great majority accepted the Government scheme, but D'Annunzio demanded a plebiscite, and the Council, anxious to save the poet's susceptibilities, agreed on a formula freeing D'Annunzio and his followers from their oath to remain in the city till annexation.

The Arditis, fearing that this ballot would be unfavorable, seized the ballot boxes. D'Annunzio was within an ace of resignation and departure, hut, surrounded by ardent supporters, he changed his mind; and proclaims himself to be led by a divine inspiration. He talks wildly, and, banging his sword, he declares he will aid rebels in Ireland, Egypt and India. Really he incarnates the characters of his decadent literature, and proclaims himself the promoted corporal of the Arditi like a mountebank of the Middle Ages.

He has secured' control of the city and will not leave it, while all but a few thousand fanatical Arditi, who are unwilling to return from their licentiousness to normal life, are vainly seeking to liberate themselves from their liberator. Social Democrats are also implicated.—Times Service.