Redemption, Not Conquest

(Taken from the journal “Italy Today: A Fortnightly Bulletin”, Volume 2, Issue 2, 1919.)

Italian States in 1454
Istria and Dalmatia were linked to Italy

Certain organs of public opinion in this and other countries have on several occasions taken Italy to task for an alleged tendency to imperialism and for infringing upon the rights of the newly created Jugoslav nation. They allege that the Italians are animated by a spirit of conquest and that the Italian nation, before entering the war, wanted the other great powers of Europe to pledge themselves to give to her, in case of victory, certain lands that belonged to other nationalities. But the lands claimed by Italy are, in the eyes of every Italian, in the light of historical and geographical reasons, just as Italian as Lombardy and Venetia, redeemed from Austrian domination respectively in 1859 and 1866. The annexation of Istria, Trentino and part of Dalmatia is the completion of Italian unity, of that unity for which the Italians struggled for four long years, with perfect faith in the justice of their cause.

If — as it is advanced by Italy's adversaries and critics — there are many Slavs who inhabit the eastern coast of the Adriatic, it is no less true that the history of this coastal land is Italian in spite of the showing of census returns. It is no less true that the Italian element has always been predominant. It is no less true that the history of Dalmatia, its most notable monuments and its whole culture are products of either Roman or Venetian influence. It is no less true that the cities in particular still remain strongholds of Italian thought. It is no less true that in spite of numerical inferiority in some parts of the redeemed lands, the language, the customs, the civilization of those lands are purely Italian.

To redeem, not to conquer, those lands, the Italians have fought and bled and suffered. They are not annexing new land, they are joining to the common motherland parts that were detached from it.

This is not imperialism, it is not conquering — it is redemption.

Documents on Austrian and Slav Oppression of Italians

(Written by Felice Ferrero, taken from the journal “Italy Today: A Fortnightly Bulletin”, Volume 2, Issue 2, 1919.)

TRIESTE

Population Statistics of Trieste

The usual Austrian practice is to consider a person as belonging to the nationality of which he speaks the language. For Trieste, instead, the principle was adopted that the language of his parents should be considered. In spite of this, the results not being satisfactory to the authorities, a revision of the census was ordered and entrusted to a committee composed of Slavs and Germans, with no Italian representatives.

[...]

The Austrian Central Commission on Statistics in Vienna, with regard to the census of December 31, 1910 (Vol. II, No. 1) states the “Slav immigration during the last two years tends to diminish,” and “it would seem that at Trieste the numerical data on the language in use does not correspond to the facts.”

Police Oppression

(It is significant to note that the following are incidents typical of the treatment given by Austrian officials to Italians in times of peace.)

In 1910 six lectures by Italians on scientific subjects were forbidden by the government in Trieste within three months.

In November, 1910, all the Sunday lectures of the Extension University were forbidden. Among the forbidden lectures were one by D'Annunzio on Aviation and two by Orsi on Cavour and Bismarck. The Chief of Police of Trieste, in the case of Orsi, who was an Italian citizen, insisted that he should go to police headquarters and dictate his lectures to two policemen, so that the police officer in charge of the lecture room could control exactly his words. Orsi of course refused to give the lectures.

The [Austrian] police of Trieste forbade the playing of the Inno di Garibaldi and of the Marcia Reale.

In December, 1911, Antonio Visentini in Monfalcone received the order of destroying the winged lion of Venice which he had put on his house, as that “was to be considered as a political demonstration.“

The Bach police regulations, dated April 20, 1854, gave the police almost absolute power over the destinies and comfort of the citizens. The police can arrest any person for any act committed on the street or in public places which the police deem objectionable. The arrested person is taken to the police station, and by the high police officials can be sentenced without any formal proceedings, without right of defense, without even an explanation of the sentence, to light prison sentences which are sufficient to exclude that person from all public offices for the rest of his life. Moreover, the state attorney can. hold people in state of arrest for an indefinite time pending investigations. The most serious part of this is that the police of Trieste, as we saw, is almost totally made up of Slovene officers.

An Italian newspaper vendor was standing before a moving picture theatre in San Giacomo, one of the suburbs of Trieste, one Sunday, when two Slovenes passed him; they jeered at him, one struck him, saying, “You Italian swine,” the other planted a knife in his heart and killed him. When the two were arrested, they gave no excuse for their act, except this: he was an Italian. The murderer was sentenced to four months in prison.

Banks

Italian banks have not been allowed by the Austrian Government to open branches in Trieste. The main banks remain the German-Austrian banks, with which the Italians transact all business. These German banks are run quite impartially as purely business enterprises, and have almost entirely Italian staffs. The Slavic banks, however, are very powerful, much more so than would require the rather indifferent business activities of the Slovenes in Trieste.

Some strange facts are to be noticed in this Slavic bank world.

The most important of these banks is a branch of the Zivnostenska Banka of Prague, that is, Czecho-Slovak, which is the main backbone of all the Slavic activities-business and otherwise of Trieste.

Among the purely Slovene banks comes first the Jadranska Banka, with 8,000,000 kronen capital; the Lubianska Kreditna Banka, which has a slender budget of 28,000 kronen; the Trzaska Posojlnica in Hranilnica, which has a capital of 133,000 kronen and yet a movement of eleven million kronen of business. Besides this, there are two or three small banks with a capital of 8000 kronen which do business amounting many hundred thousands a year. There is no real business to keep these banks going and the Czecho-Slovak bank is called upon very often to save them from trouble with the money, which the Slovak bank draws from unknown sources.

The chief activities of these banks seem to be to buy Italian property and Italian business wherever they can get it and at any price, provided their position is such that it affords an opening for the Slav invasion.

Some curious examples of the business transactions of these banks are the following:

Grignano is a small town not very far from Trieste. The Trzaska Posojlnica in Hranilnica has bought large holdings of land on the shore of this town, built hotels and bath establishments and created from nothing a summer resort for Slavs, excluding from it all Italian traders and all Italian signs. The town had a small dock on the shore at which the small steamers of an Italian company from Trieste used to tie up. Now the bank has excluded from the use of the public dock, in a town in which many Italians pay taxes, the steamers of this company, reserving its use for the steamers of a Slovene company. An Italian peasant nearby, having had a barge full of bricks. sent to him, was not allowed to use the dock for unloading, and had to build a temporary dock and piles for himself. The Austrian Government, which has control of all the seashore rights, never made a move.

The Jadarska Banka financed lavishly a large Italian lumber firm; then with the threat of foreclosure of the mortgage imposed its own Slovene manager, then Slovene employees, and finally Slovene workmen. Similarly the bank has succeeded in getting control of an Italian brewery; and in the case of a merchant, a certain Gustavo Marco, lent him 240,000 kronen for a glass factory, gradually imposed on him managers and workmen Slovenes, Slavs, Croatians and finally reduced the owner to the rank of a nominal superintendent with a salary of fifty kronen a week to begin with, reduced later to thirty kronen.

A bank of Gorizia, the Trgovsko-obrtna Zadruga, with 5000 kronen capital, has 21/2 millions of deposits, and invests the whole of its holdings in the building of a national house in Gorizia and in the purchase of a hotel of the Süd-Bahn—the first an enterprise with no returns, and the second an enterprise with no profits. The Government, which has the supervision of the banks, did not interfere.

In Zara a small Croatian bank was discovered, during a suit for bankruptcy, to have lent money without any mortgage instruments, had a board of directors who were paid ten kronen for every session, and never had any sign of activities. A government inspector made a report, but the government ignored it until the crash came.

Yet most of these banks manage to go through almost all crises, thanks to help from the Czecho-Slovak bank or other secret sources, which are known to have been Russian to the point that in Trieste the Russian ruble was circulated almost as freely as the Austrian kronen.

Slav Invasion

The center of Slavic agitation in Trieste is the Narodni Dom, a huge building right in the middle of Trieste, which directs all the campaigns of attack against the Italian population. The expenses for the building were borne by the Slovene Bank of Deposits and Loans and Loans (Trzaska Posojlnica in Hranilnica). The house, however, always shows a deficit, which is paid from secret sources. Connected with the house there is a Hotel Balkan. The Austrian Government, in a circular to the army, has advised the officers passing through Trieste to use the Hotel Balkan, “to increase its revenue and spite the Triestans.”

The central organization of the Slovenes is the Edinost Union, which is a political association and has its seat in the Narodni Dom. It spreads all through the districts of the mixed population of the Friuli.

One of the chief purposes of the Edinost seems to be the directing to Trieste of the largest possible emigration of Slovene workmen, which it it does by means of an employment office that supplies strike breakers when necessary or useful.

The Edinost has also founded two primary schools in Trieste with 1722 pupils in 1912, and a trade school with 79 students in 1913. One of the two primary schools cost 500,000 kronen, the origin of which is unknown.

It is at the suggestion of the then president of the Edinost, Dr. Rybar, a Slovene, that the Governor of Trieste, Prince Hohenlohe, published four decrees in 1910 excluding from the employment of the municipality of Trieste all the Italians of Italy.

The Edinost

The Edinost, which is also the newspaper of the organization, has been so violent in attacking the Italians that it has had even to be seized and suppressed by the Austrian authorities.

Here is the program for national propaganda as it appears in the columns of that paper in the number of January 7, 1911:

“Tomorrow the Slavs of Trieste must speak. We are here and we will stay here and enjoy our rights. Tomorrow we shall throw the gauntlet of defiance to the coterie which dominates, and then will begin the duel which we shall not give up until the day when we have under our feet, crushed to dust, the artificial Italianism of Trieste. So far our struggle was for equality. Tomorrow we shall say to the Italians that the future struggle will be for domination. We shall not stop until WE command in Trieste; we Slovenes, Slavs! The Italianism of Trieste, which is now ebbing, is now celebrating its last orgy before its death. Tomorrow we, the Slovenes of Trieste, shall invite these voted to death to recite the confiteor.”

Employees

1. Unionbaugesellschaft — employs all Italians.

2. 1900-10. Population of Carniola increases 3.3 per cent., Slavs in Trieste 130 per cent.

3. Railroad of Tauri imports 700 Slovene families of railroad workers.

4. New harbor of Sant'Andrea. 2500 laborers, all Slovene.

5. New harbor of Sant'Andrea. Beginning work of discharging ships, 64 Slovene stevedores against 160 Triestine applications.

6. Austrian Lloyd. 1300 Slovenes out of 3000 shipyard workmen.

7. Triestine Technical Works: By order of the Government all Italians and many Triestans are discharged, their places being filled with Slovenes, Croatians and Germans.

Bureaucracy (1910)

4000 positions for subordinate government employees and 3700 given to Slovenes.

Government railroads of 828 station employees: 728 are Slavs, 70 Italian, 30 Germans.

Post Office: 358 clerks — 245 Slavs and 95 Italians.

Customs-house Officers: 500 — 146 Italians.

Police: 661 — 100 Italians.

Südbahn (private): 1913

Station: Employees 369 — 260 Slavs, 70 Italians, 30 Germans.

Laborers: 380 — 354 Slavs, 6 Italians, 20 Germans.

Journeymen: 300 — 298 Slavs, 2 Italians.

Inspectors: 50 — 47 Slavs, 3 Italians.

Railroad restaurants: Slovene signs and Slovene waiters.

A Triestan [who speaks] Italian, Slovene [and] German was refused for mail carrier; accepted Slovenes speaking only their own language.

Schools

Trieste had an Italian gymnasium dating from 1619; amplified by Napoleon; in 1815 was suppressed; petitions for the reopening of the gymnasium were presented to the government in 1824, 1833, 1840, 1851, 1859, 1861, 1862. In 1862 the government gave permission, provided the city would pay expenses. The city immediately decided to do so, but permission was suspended. Finally, 1863, the gymnasium was opened, but its examinations are not considered valid for state purposes.

There are no Italian high schools in Pirano; Rovigno with 5000 Italian inhabitants; Monfalcone with 12,000 Italians.

In Gorizia there were allowed Italian classes in the German gymnasium under the principalship of a Slovene, with the limitation of the number of pupils to 50.

Italian primary schools in Trieste, all supported by the city, were founded in 1868, with 6819 pupils. In 1911 there were 21 schools with 16,470 pupils. Illiteracy has dropped from 43 to 14 per cent.

Heroic Episodes in Fight for Schools

At San Colombano, in Istria, 89 family heads were tried and sentenced to jail for insisting that they wanted an Italian school instead of a Slovene school.

At Servola, a suburb of Trieste, in 1911 there used to come every morning a child of six years, Celestina Rosa, accompanied by three brothers, coming from Bagnoli, another village, having to walk every day four hours to come and go.

In Trieste the government has forbidden the teaching of the history of Trieste itself.

An order of the last Governor of Trieste, Prince Hohenlohe, dated June 24, 1913, forbids the town council of Trieste to give the names of Dante and Petrarca to two schools of which the city pays the entire expenses.

The Church

The Church is one of the most potent vehicles of the national agitation among the Slavs, and this is equally true of the Catholic Church as of the Orthodox.

At present the diocese of Trieste has 290 priests, of which 190 are Slovenes. The Church has even tried to introduce Slav influence into the convents and monasteries. The priests at Daila, in Istria, who were all The Italians, are all Slav now. monastery of the Minor Observant, in Capodistria, is already partly filled with Croatian monks. Croatian nuns from Agram [Zagreb] have opened a school in Pola. The Slovene nuns of Cilli tried to open a school in Trieste, but they got badly tangled up in financial matters and the Government saved them from bankruptcy by buying their building for 900,000 kronen.

On the other hand, the Italian friars of Pirano who had asked to open at their own expense a branch of their monastery in Pola, were refused the permission.

In 1909 there was a Eucharistic Congress at Ragusa, in Dalmatia. 600 Croatian priests from Agram [Zagreb] went to Fiume to board a steamer for Ragusa and traversed the city marching on a front of four, like soldiers, with Croatian flags and singing war songs. As the steamer passed Zara, they renewed their demonstrations, shouting insults to the Italians of that city. Great tumult followed, with blows and pistol shots. The Slavs who were arrested were at once released, while the Italians who were arrested had to stay for several days in jail. And this was all for a religious ceremony.

In Spalato, a man known to be of Italian sentiment died; the Croatian priest refused to assist him in his last moments, refused to open the church for the funeral, refused to allow him to be buried in a cemetery.

In Istria, at Topolovatz, the priest, a man called Knavs, refused to bury an Italian girl, who was left for two days and two nights in her home.

In Sterna the priest Nedeved refused the last rites to a carpenter of Uberton because he was Italian.

At Lindaro, near Pisino, a Croatian priest refused to baptize a child because the father requested that the formula be said in Latin instead of Slovene.

On October 28, 1913, the master of the Italian school of Sovignaco, in Istria, was tried before the court of Rovigno for “disturbing the functions of the Catholic religion for having, during the procession of St. Mark, made the Italian school children sing the litanies in Latin, while the priest Klun and the other believers were singing in Croatian.”

In the diocese of Trieste the Italian priest of Roviano was suspended a divinis by the bishop for having refused to sing tantum ergo in Slav, while the Vatican orders it sung in Latin.

Courts

From 1781 to 1895 proceedings were held in the language of the country, hence in Italian. Later Slovene wa s introduced.

In 1903, all hearings were held in Slovene, and, despite vigorous protests, there was no response from the Government and Slovene was imposed.

Elections

A Jugo-Slav writer in a newspaper recently complained that in Trieste during the last elections, 14,000 Italian votes could elect four members to the Reichsrat, while 10,000 Slovene votes elected only one, giving this as an example of the favoritism of the Austrian Government toward the Italians. The writer, to begin with, forgot 9000 Socialist votes which are entirely Italian, because the Slav Socialists vote for their own people, and secondly forgot that in the present arrangement of majority representation, this fact is simply proof of the minority of the Slavs and nothing else.

In Connecticut, for instance, there are five members of Congress, four of whom are Republican and one is Democratic, and yet the Democratic party polled some 75,000 votes against 86,000 of the Republican. But the Slavs would like to have majority representation where they are in the majority, and proportional representation where they are in the minority.

Register of Land Surveys

The register is compiled with notes in Slovene, German and Croatian. The Diet proposed one in Italian with authentic Slovene translation but the Government refused.

Zara: Italian register of land surveys (1914) was translated into Croatian and the names were changed.

FIUME

(From Current History, January, 1918)

Fiume was just outside the terrain of evacuation; still, it has a predominating Italian population of 45,000. The Mayor was Italian, so was the Town Council. Armed bands of Jugo-Slavs under orders from the Jugo-Slav Council at Agram entered the town, forced the resignation of the Mayor and Town Council, and ordered them to take down the Italian flag and hoist the Jugo-Slav banner in its place. Gatherings of Italians to celebrate the Italian victory were dispersed by rifle and machinegun fire. Italian soldiers on the heights above the city looked on and saw their fellow countrymen thus terrorized and were powerless to help them until orders came from General Diaz for their take possession of Fiume and protect the Italians there. Meanwhile similar, although not so serious, Jugo-Slav demonstrations commander, General Raineri, to had taken possession of Fiume and Pola, where they had been suppressed by the respective military Governors, General Petitti and Admiral Cagni.

[...]

DALMATIA

November 1910: Court clerk called before disciplinary commission of the Court of Appeals of Cittavecchia to answer to the charges of:

1. Leader (instructor) of an Italian music band.

2. Had his daughter baptized in Italian.

3. Had his daughter baptized in Mafalda.

1914: Italian register of the survey of lands (libro catasto) translated into Croatian and names altered.

The Oesterreichische Rundschau in Vienna, May 1, 1909, wrote:

“We must act at Trieste as we did in Dalmatia; help the non-Italian propaganda in order decidedly to suppress the Italian element.”

See also:
Italy's Case Against the Jugo-Slavs

Italy's Case Against the Jugo-Slavs

(Written by Felice Ferrero, taken from the journal “Italy Today: A Fortnightly Bulletin”, Volume 2, Issue 2, 1919.)

An Address made by Dr. Felice Ferrero in answer to Mr. V. R. Savic at a Luncheon organized by the League for Free Nations.

In order clearly to understand the Italian position in the so-called Adriatic question, we must state first what is the real political status at present of the Jugo-Slavs. This point has been brought out already several times in the press, but it is necessary to insist upon it because it has a good deal of bearing upon the whole question. As you doubtless know, the Jugo-Slav state does not exist; neither the United States, nor Great Britain, nor France, nor Italy, have recognized the Jugo-Slav state, although they have all expressed their sympathy with the Jugo-Slav aspirations. The Jugo-Slavs accuse Italy of being the real obstacle to such recognition and it is quite possible that such is the fact, but we shall see that there are many very good reasons for it.

As things now stand, we have the old kingdom of Serbia, which is one of the Allies and will be represented at the peace conference. On the other hand we have a group of populations composed of Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians, Herzegovinians and Dalmatians who are part of an enemy country; who to the effects of international law are still an enemy population, and who are waiting for the peace congress to decide what shall be done with them. In this decision they, as well as the other parts of the Austro-German Empire dr, Germany, have no voice at all. It is for us, the Allied countries, and more precisely for the four Great Powers, to say what their fate shall be. There is no doubt that the verdict of the congress of peace will be that those people, in so far as they make up a compact national unit, shall join their Serbian kinsmen to form a greater state therein to enjoy a full national life, if their internal quarrels will allow. When, however, it comes to territories, where such people do not form a compact national unit, but are mixed with Italian populations, that is to say, to the Adriatic provinces, the question as to what should be done with such regions is already settled by the all too famous and much abused Treaty of London.

Validity of Treaty of London

Before I go any further into the discussion of the Treaty of London, I should like to indulge in a few general considerations concerning the reception that the treaty has been given in the world at large. The Jugo-Slav agitators in this country and in Europe would like to give the impression that the treaty is null and void because it was a secret treaty, and this being the dawn of the wonderful era of democracy and people's brotherhood, secret treaties are not allowed. I should like to call your attention to the fact that, so far, such view has been expressed officially only by the Premier of Serbia and the Premier of Greece, two countries in which, as is unfortunately the case of most Balkanic countries, political good faith is usually held in very low esteem. As a matter of fact the treaty still exists and none of the signing powers have expressed any intention of not honoring it. The Minister of Foreign Affairs in Great Britain, Mr. Balfour, has solemnly declared in Parliament that any treaty bearing the signature of the British Government is sacred to Great Britain; and no opposition has arisen on the part of the French Government, although the Jugo-Slavs, by the very reprehensible game of stirring up ill feelings between allies in favor of an enemy, have succeeded in creating a certain current in their favor in part of the press of all countries.

As for the United States, it is futile to say that the fact that it was not a party to the compact makes it free to help the cause of the enemy Croatians against allied Italy. If my information is correct the United States was informed of the existence of the treaty when it entered the war and raised no objection to it; then actually implicitly accepted it by sending troops to the Italian front. The number of American troops at the Italian front was, it is true, quite small; but again, if I am correctly informed, the American Government had decided to send, and Secretary Baker had ordered, very large contingents to the Italian front, when the order was suspended and withdrawn because of certain opposition which for the moment I need not discuss further, as this is not quite pertinent to the subject in hand.

It is rather unpleasant to have to remind people of a debt of honor, because such things are supposed to be unnecessary among gentlemen. If anyone will say that, circumstances having changed, the signatures of France and England are no longer good, I shall not argue the question with him. I shall remind him that the war which devastated Europe was possible only because of an act of international bad faith on the part of Germany, which alone brought the intervention of England in the war; and also that the cause of the entrance of the United States in the war was not, as people often say, the championship of any principles of democracy but again an act of international bad faith on the part of Germany in not keeping her submarine agreement. International laws and relations are based on good faith, as there is no other possible force to enact international agreements; and it would be a sad league of nations, indeed, or a poor peace, indeed, that would begin with such an act of bad faith as the violation of a treaty.

The Slav's Threat of War

The Serbian and Jugo-Slav agitators would like to have us believe that a settlement of the Adriatic question according to the Treaty of London would mean certain war in the future; in fact, they threaten us with war to the knife if we dare to think of it. I am quite sure that the Jugo-Slavs and their friends need not worry about possibilities of war. This peace, like every other peace, will have the germs of the next war in it, no matter what we do. Without going any further, Alsace-Lorraine will be sufficient excuse for a powerful Germany of the future to start trouble whenever she feels strong enough for it, not only because of national claims, but because of the very important fact that the transfer of Lorraine to France will have given to France the best iron deposits of Germany and 80 percent of the total iron production of Europe. And the rivalries of the small states which are rising all through Eastern and Central Europe, making of it an immense Balkanic peninsula, will be enough to give food for thought and occupation for armies for centuries to come, unless some way can be found of keeping them down.

The threat of war on the part of Premier Vestnich, of Serbia, strikes me as either funny or pitiful, according to the point of view. We know very well that Serbia has a little army left — the army which Italy saved for her after the tragic retreat of Albania by transferring it to Corfu and then to Salonica — but it might be well to remind the Premier that all the manhood of military age of Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia and of Slovenia is held prisoner in Italy, and that Italy has been supplied by the collapse of the Austrian army, which was made up of one-third of Croatians, with enough guns, ammunitions, horses, motor trucks, airplanes, gasolene and ships to keep in order for a long time to come not only little Serbia, but greater Serbia, or a fellow many times her size. But the threat seems to me too absurd to consider it further, even as a jest.

Conciliatory Faction in Italy

The Treaty of London, then, stands as it is. The intemperance, however, of the Jugo-Slavs in putting forth their claims has stirred up a counter current of nationalism in Italy which goes much beyond the limits of the Treaty of London and claims, besides Fiume, the whole of Dalmatia, and, beyond, Ragusa and Cattaro. I should not be surprised if these claims were recognized by the peace congress, and if so, the Jugo-Slavs will have only to thank their own work for it.

The Jugo-Slavs and their friends tried to make much of the fact of supposed dissension in the Italian public concerning the Treaty of London. The party of conciliation with the Jugo-Slavs, which the Jugo-Slavs have very wrongly interpreted as a party of renunciation, is headed by the Corriere della Sera of Milan. Inasmuch as I have belonged to the editorial staff of the Corriere since my college graduation and I am still connected with it, I may claim the privilege of giving you some exact information as to what the polemics started by the Corriere last fall exactly mean in this matter. The Corriere and its followers never meant to abandon the claims of Italy to Trieste, Gorizia, Gradisca and Istria; lately the Corriere has added Fiume to the claims of Italy, about which no discussion is even admitted. The Corriere said, however, that in view of the evident advantages of conciliation and friendly relations with the neighboring Slav state-to-be, it might be advisable to compromise on the question of Dalmatia by allowing the Croatians to control Dalmatia on condition, however, that the necessary guarantees be given for the protection of the Italian element living there. That was all.

And this is also the standpoint that I have supported in this country, strenuously enough to bring upon my head, on the part of the Italian press, the accusation of being a pro-Slav; but I must sincerely confess that given the tone of the Jugo-Slav agitation, I very much fear that no matter what the Italians might be willing to concede for the sake of conciliation, no conciliation is possible, and I doubt very much besides whether the arrangement suggested by this conciliatory party would be of any greater satisfaction to the Croatians than the intransigent behavior of Minister Sonnino. This party of conciliation, in fact, would require, as I said, absolute guarantees for the Italian element in Dalmatia, failing which they would approve of armed intervention to secure them.

Since the Croatians of Dalmatia, short of a miracle, are not to be depended upon to respect other nationalities, as I shall show you later on the basis of documents, this would mean a clash between Italy and the future Jugo-Slav state within a very few years, and with such prospect in view I think it would be a safer proceeding to settle the matter now along the clearer, if apparently stiffer, lines of the Sonnino program. 

Pact of Rome

There has been a tendency on the part of the Jugo-Slavs toward accusing Italy of, let us say, forgetfulness, because of that Pact of Rome of last winter which was supposed to have established an agreement between Italy and Slavs. I shall say, however, that that Pact of Rome expressly excluded any question of territorial boundaries and simply formulated a program of action by which the oppressed nationalities of Austria should co-operate in the destruction of the Austrian Empire. This was accomplished, but it is regrettable to say that while all the other oppressed nationalities did their part, the Croatians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Slovenes and Dalmatians did not; they fought with the Austrian Empire and for the Austrian Empire until the last, running out of the house and seeking shelter in the bosom of the Allies only when they heard the timbers of the roof crash over their heads. Under the circumstances, little consideration is due to them for the results.

And now let us examine very briefly the arrangements of the Treaty of London, as far as they apply to the Adriatic. There are two separate parts of the Adriatic provinces which the Treaty of London gives to Italy; one is the northern part including Gorizia, Gradisca, Carinthia, part of Carniola, Trieste and Istria — to these now Fiume has added itself by its own plebiscite. The other is Dalmatia.

As far as the first part is concerned, I beg to state that no differences of opinion exist in the mind of any Italian; that part is occupied, will be retained, and no discussion is at all admitted by any Italian party of any kind. Only as a matter of extreme courtesy, I will allow myself to take up a few arguments which may be of interest in this question.

Population of Disputed Area

The reason why Italy insists on the possession of these regions is twofold. First, because the country is inhabited by a large Italian population, amounting to about one-half of the total, which has been long persecuted and oppressed by Austria, especially through the medium of the Slovene population. It might be of interest to you to know that irredentism in Trieste is a matter of comparatively recent times. ... With the advance of Italy toward the East and the freeing from Austrian dominion of Lombardy and Venice, Austria entirely reversed its policy and began a most determined attempt to stifle the Italian character of Trieste and neighboring countries by helping and encouraging the national invasion of the Slovene population. A state of political tension followed which I shall describe later, and resulted in a Slovene oppression of the Italian city and the development of a powerful feeling of irredentism in its Italian population.

The case of Fiume is even more conspicuous, as Fiume has always been a free city strongly animated by feelings of local freedom. The irredentism of Fiume which led to its declaration of union with Italy practically dates from the declaration of the war and the regime of violence which under the protection of the Austrian Government was instituted in the city by the Croatian element. Such feeling is now so strong that the Mayor of Fiume solemnly declared in Rome that should Fiume be assigned by the peace conference to Croatia, the entire population of Fiume would rather migrate than stay, and other officials of the city, not constrained by the necessity of keeping parliamentary language, put it more bluntly by saying that the Fiumans would rather go to hell than be with Croatia.

A curious thing is to be noted here. I said that the population of those regions is about half Italian and half Slav. According to the Slavic figures it is exactly 439,413 Slavs and 354,595 Italians. It must be remarked, however, that these figures are based on a revised census of 1910 for the city of Trieste — an interesting instance, this, which I shall explain to you later — the first census taken that year giving Trieste 24,000 more Italians and therefore 24,000 fewer Slavs — that is with a shift of 48,000 in the proportions of the two parts of the population. This shift would bring the total Slav population down to 415,000, and the total Italian up to 378,000. If we add to these 35,000 Italians and the 10,000 Slavs of Fiume, we should reach the final figures of 413,000 Italians against 425,000 Slavs, which figure, however, includes a few thousand Germans and Hungarians of Trieste, Fiume and Pola. In other words, the population is about equally divided.

The curious thing is that the Jugo-Slavs and their friends, while they accuse Italy of imperialism for its intention to incorporate 425,000 Slavs in this region, apparently think nothing of the fact that the Jugo-Slavs would like to include 413,000 Italians in their own territory.

The facts on which the whole question of the population hinges, Italians and Jugo-Slavs substantially agree upon. The Jugo-Slavs admit that the majority of the cities is Italian, and the Italians agree that the majority of the country[side] population is Slav; in what exact proportions it really does not matter. We also agree that it is practically impossible to separate the cities and the hinterland. The question then is: shall the cities go with the country, or the country with the cities? In the world of hypothesis the Italian claim that the country must go with the cities is as good as the Slav claim that the cities must go with the country.

Frontier Question

But the Italians have some other and better reasons in their favor, chief of which is the protection of their frontiers. By extending the boundaries to the main divide of the Alps in Southern Tyrol and in the East, Italy has secured for herself absolute protection against any possibility of foreign invasion. The war has proved that no army, no matter how powerful, can cross a well defended mountain chain. The Russians failed in the Carpathians, the French and Germans failed respectively in the Vosges, the Austrians failed on the Trentino side of Italy and the Italians failed on the eastern side. The only chance for the invasion that devastated part of Italy for a year was exactly through the open door of the East. You may rest assured that Italy, having now conquered by force of arms, the eastern door to her house, will not relinquish it.

[...]

Suppression of Italians in Dalmatia

As to Dalmatia, the story is a little bit different, but only apparently so. It is true that the overwhelming majority of the population is Croatian, with the exception of the city of Zara, which is Italian-note the curious fact that the capital of a Slavic province has remained Italian in spite of all things done to change it but it will not be amiss to remember that Dalmatia was for three centuries part of the Republic of Venice, that from 1815 to 1866, during the first part of the Austrian occupation, Dalmatia was still connected with the provinces of Lombardy and Venice, that Italian was the official language of the courts, of all public offices and of the schools. Until about 1870 Italians and Slavs in Dalmatia lived in very good harmony, the Slavs accepting the influence of Italian civilization, going to Padua and not to Agram [Zagreb] for their college studies, and generally recognizing the historical necessity of the Italian character of Dalmatia.

It might interest you to know that Nicolò Tommaseo, a Dalmatian who wrote (in Italian) a lyric to the Greater Serbia which would come in the future, and who became one of the greatest grammarians of Italy, wrote in 1837 the following lines to Cesare Cantù: “I am Italian because I was born of Venetian subjects, because my first language was Italian, because my great-grandmother's father came to Dalmatia from the valleys of Bergamo. Dalmatia virtually is more Italian than Bergamo, and I at heart am more Italian than Italy.” And let me also quote from a Croatian newspaper of Spalato, the Nase Jedinsto of December, 1910: “We no longer study Italian and great is the danger that comes from this, especially among the young people.”

Affairs changed in Dalmatia, at the same time as in the north and for the same reason, in about 1870, and in the new generations of Croatians, helped and egged on by the Austrian Government, grew the fierce, almost savage, spirit of aggressive nationalism that had only one program: destroy everything, and with all means, that was not Croatian. With the help of the Government they suppressed Italian as the official language in offices, they suppressed the Italian schools, they suppressed the Italian courts, they even forced Italians that have to do with courts to stand proceedings in Croatian without any interpreter, and to have all documents concerning property, like mortgages, transfers, etc., written and registered in Croatian. It is a very easy argument, of course, on the part of the Croatians to say that we must deal with conditions as they are now and not as they were. That is the comfortable argument by which Germany tried to persuade the world that the occupation of Belgium was no longer to be discussed; but it is not unnatural that many in Italy should want not only to recall a past which dates back only about forty years—about the time of the Alsace-Lorraine occupation-h also investigate the methods with which some of the results of the present day have been achieved. I do not see, therefore, that the matter of the present make-up of the population of Dalmatia should be any obstacle to the Italian occupation.

Italy, on the other hand, has some important reasons, also of a military nature, for the occupation of those lands, and especially of Sebenico, which is the best harbor of the Adriatic after Cattaro. Slavs accuse Italy of wanting to make of the Adriatic an Italian lake. That, however, is not the idea of Italy. What Italy wants to do is to make the Adriatic a sea in which there is no foreign navy to threaten her coasts, nor any possibility of such a foreign navy being developed; with the occupation of the harbors of Pola, Sebenico, possibly Cattaro, and the control of the entrance to the Adriatic through the occupation of Valona, such result is very definitely and positively obtained. “But whoever threatens Italy?” say our Croatian neighbors, who alternately play the role of the lamb and the lion according to the effect desired. The Croatians with their Serbian friends have struck such a belligerent tone that any measure of protection on the part of Italy would be, by this very fact, justified in the eyes of all peoples.

The Russian Peril

That is not all. We come here to a very interesting argument, which has to do with the present situation of of Central and Eastern Europe and the possibilities of their future. For one thing I read in the book of my esteemed opponent, Vladislav R. Savic, the following passage: “It is of no small concern to Italy and the world which road the future Russian policy will take; will she develop like a sincere, broad-minded, peaceful and tolerant democracy, or be eaten by the cancerous desire of world domination? ... In vain Italians would say tomorrow that imperial Russia had consented to their occupation of those Slav lands ... Unable to hinder the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria, Prince Gorchakov, at the Congress of Berlin is reported to have said to Count Andrassy: 'Well, go in, but Bosnia and Herzegovina will prove to be the tomb of Austria-Hungary. Are the words of Prince Gorchakov to Count Andrassy no warning to Italy?'”

Here we see our Jugo-Slav neighbors threatening us the resurrection and the vengeance of Russia. But, gentlemen, the possibility of Russia's reaching the Adriatic shore through the lands of the Southern Slavs, acting either as her allies or as her vassals, was exactly one of the reasons that prompted the claims of Italy at the time of the Treaty of London, a reason which the contracting parties then and most writers now acknowledged to be very good. The danger is then still impending, it seems. Why should the Italian policy change, then, if such is the condition?

But there is something more that I should like to call to your attention.

Revival of Austrian Empire

The Jugo-Slavs will be a small power and to Italy, at least, an inoffensive state, it is said. Granted. But there is something behind and beyond the Jugo-Slav state that must be considered. I have recently, in a statement to the press, accused the Croatians of making Austrian propaganda by their trying to stir up trouble and ill feeling among the Allies. This, gentlemen, is not idle talk, is not chasing of spooks. The revival of the Austrian Empire in the original form, only enlarged, is far from being a remote contingency. We heard a few days ago President Masaryk of Czecho-Slovakia openly declare that one of the purposes of the foreign policy of Czecho-Slovakia would be the formation of a Danube Confederation, to which the Germans of Austria will be also admitted, if they so desire, the center and directing power of such federation to be in Prague. Gentlemen, this is nothing more and nothing less than Austria as it was, with the addition of Serbia; the only difference being the ingenuous belief of President Masaryk that if the Germans of Austria are admitted to the confederation, the Slavs of Czecho-Slovakia could even for one moment retain the controlling position in the confederation as against the active organizing and executive powers of the Germans of Vienna.

[...]

To come now to a conclusion, the situation is really a very simple one. It is not possible to dispose of the Adriatic coast without putting Slavs under Italian control or Italians under Slav control; it is only a matter of who should get first consideration. That Italy has the right to this first consideration is something that very few people will doubt in view of the facts and of the considerations already stated. I have been myself a partisan of the conciliatory policy suggested by the Corriere della Sera, as I stated before, and in this sense I have spoken at Columbia, at City College of New York, in cities outside of New York, and have written on many occasions; but I fear me that in view of the attitude assumed by our Croatian enemies, and I regret to add by our Serbian friends, a conciliation will be It difficult to reach. very seems to me that the cry which the Jugo-Slavs are trying to pass for the exultant voice of a new-born nation is nothing more than the ugly growl of a dog who sees a fat chunk of meat taken away from him and knows besides that the big stick of his master is no longer there to defend him in the enjoyment of his improperly acquired meat. I still hope against hope, but I must say the Adriatic question is a question that concerns Italy and the Jugo-Slavs — nobody else — and the next move for a good understanding must come from the Jugo-Slav side and in the proper frame of mind, that is of modesty and repentance; as far as I know Italy has done everything that she could do.

See also:

Documents on Austrian and Slav Oppression of Italians

Dalmatia by Dr. Roberto Ghiglianovich

(Written by Roberto Ghiglianovich, taken from “The Journal of American History”, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1919.)

The Honorable Roberto Ghiglianovich is the representative of the Italians of Dalmatia. For the last thirty years he has been a Member of the Dalmatian Diet; he is a former President of the Political Association of the Italians of Dalmatia and of the Board of Directors of the National League for their Italian schools. During the War he was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Political Society of Unredeemed Italians in Rome. A man of his calibre would naturally be a shining target for the Austrian police, who hounded him ceaselessly and finally triumphed in an order for his arrest. This he forestalled by his escape to Italy in March, 1915.

It is a constant source of grief to the Italian Dalmatians to recall how near they had come to attaining their goal of unity with Italy when Garibaldi, in 1866, had actually planned the expedition for their liberation, in which he was supported by Premier Ricasoli. Garibaldi conceived of this as a continuation of the general programme of Italian unity and freedom. The unfortunate events that followed cut short the cherished hopes of Garibaldi and his Dalmatian brothers. The latter always assumed that, in any martial activities for liberation and Italian unity, they were to take their share of dangers and hardships equally with the Italians of the Kingdom. They proved this gloriously in 1848, in 1859, and 1866. The following clear statement of Dr. Ghiglianovich is full of inevitable suggestion.

– The Editors.

DALMATIA

By Doctor Roberto Ghiglianovich

Member of the Dalmatian Diet

After making my escape to Italy in March, 1915, I had the joy of returning to my native country with Admiral Millo, the hero of the Dardanelles, whom the Italian Government had named Governor of Dalmatia. I landed with him first at Sebenico and then at Zara. The two cities, and the Dalmatian Islands, had been occupied a few days before by the Italian land and sea forces. When we landed, the Italians at Sebenico received us with manifestations of joy. I found my native city, Zara, in ecstasy after the signing of the Armistice in November, 1918. Its streets were all bedecked with thousands of Italian flags. When the Italian battleship arrived, with the Commander who had occupied Zara several hours before the signing of the Armistice, the entire population of the city gathered along the shore. Young and old, women and children, knelt devoutly, blessing Italy, their liberator!

When Admiral Millo spoke to the crowd from the balcony of the Municipal Palace of Zara, public demonstration knew no bounds. The entire population swore eternal allegiance to the Mother-Country, Italy, and to her glorious and victorious King. The Italians of the Dalmation Islands received the Italian forces of occupation with the same joyful acclaim. Thanks to the provisions made by the Italian Governor, after the first difficulties of feeding the population were overcome, and after dealing with Bolsheviki soldiers and prisoners whom Austria scattered through the interior of the country, life assumed its normal aspect. Food is plentiful there, and land and sea communications are being reestablished. Public administration and schools have resumed their regular work. The conduct of the troops of occupation is correct in every respect. Even the rural Slavs of the interior are receptive and appreciative.

But the joy of all the liberated Italians is far from unalloyed. The chief city of Dalmatia, Spalato — the city which bears so long and sad a history of struggles for the triumph of Italian sentiment in Dalmatia — has not been occupied by the Italian Army and Navy. It was not included in the line of the occupation of Dalmatia as traced by the conditions of the Treaty of Armistice between Italy and Austria-Hungary. At Spalato there is now a provisional Croatian government, acting under directions from the National Committee of Sagabria [Zagreb]. With unheard-of violence, they suppress every demonstration on the part of the large and important Italian element of the city. Italian and foreign newspapers have published for American and Allied public opinion news of the outrages committed against the Italians at Spalato. Their tragic fate can easily be foreseen if their city should not be reunited to Italy as Zara, Sebenico, and the Dalmatian Islands will be.

As an evidence of the persistently Italian character of Spalato, and of the ardent longing of the Italians at Spalato to have their city joined to Italy, the following incident will be enlightening. Only two days after the signing of the Armistice, about 5,000 Italians in Spalato became members of the National Association of the “Dante Alighieri” of Rome, which, since its foundation about thirty years ago, has been ceaseless in its efforts to uphold the sacred Italian aspirations among which, just like the Trentino, Venezia Giulia, Trieste, and Fiume, Dalmatia has always largely figured.

Dalmatia has been as Italian as Rome and Venice for 2,000 years. It was Roman up to the time of the fall of the Roman Empire; then it constituted itself into free communities, thoroughly Latin and Italian in character. It belonged to the Republic of Venice from 1409 to 1797, in which year it was given by Napoleon to Austria, together with Venice and Istria.

In spite of the barbarous methods employed by Austria from 1866 to the day of her disruption, in order to bring about forcibly a preponderance of Croatian population in Dalmatia, the Italian sentiment there is very much alive. This fact should be recognized and given serious consideration. Dalmatia has nothing of the Balkan and Eastern character. One has only to see its cities and be genuinely in touch with its populations in order to be convinced that Rome and Venice did not influence them externally only, but left indelible marks of Italian thought and culture upon them. Italy, therefore, has not only a legal claim, but a spiritual hold over the country.

See also:

Fiume by Dr. Gino Antoni

Trieste by Giorgio Pitacco

Fiume by Dr. Gino Antoni

(Written by Gino Antoni, taken from “The Journal of American History”, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1919.)

The Honourable Gino Antoni was born in Fiume and for the last twenty years has had but one purpose in life: to aid his fellow Italians in restoring their city to its motherland. In 1914 and the following year a goodly number of impetuous, daring Fiumans, with loyalty in their hearts and the glorious vision of union with Italy before their minds, braved the dangers of crossing the frontiers, for the joy of fighting beside the Italians. On the Isonzo and in the Alps they fought and died, happy in a death that found them on their own soil at last. Volcanic feeling was not only finding expression on the battle-fields, but among the civilian Fiumans who had succeeded in escaping from Magyar tyranny, and among those of their fellow-citizens who were in Italy before the War broke out. To be ready for the long-prayed-for hour, they formed a National Committee for Fiume and the Quarnaro. The cup for which they had bravely lived and bravely died was at their very lips, but it proved to be filled with the waters of Tantalus. But the bitterness of disappointment only whetted their determination, leaving their spirit uncrushed, undaunted. Doctor Antoni speaks for himself and his fellow-citizens. 

– The Editors.

FIUME

By Doctor Gino Antoni

Vice-Mayor of Fiume and Member of the National Council of the City

For the last twenty years my fellow-citizens and I have been fighting for the cause of the redemption of Fiume. During the War, I was one of those put on trial for implacable Irredentism. How I escaped the gallows only adds another to the list of unexplained miracles. Now I have come to America to make the true voice of my city heard, and to make it clear in my official capacity that Fiume craves to be united to Italy. Fiume is Italian by the blood that flows in her veins, the words of her mouth, and the burning desire of her heart!

Fiume has always fought against foreign oppression. She was a part of Hungary, but as a “separate body”. Hungary was composed of three states: Hungary proper, Croatia, and Fiume. The victory of the Italian Army severed this union and Fiume regained her independence. On the 30th of October, 1918, four days before Austria signed the Armistice, Fiume unanimously declared her union with Italy, thus repeating her own history. For in 1779 she fought against the proposed annexation to Croatia, and in 1868 obtained recognition of her peculiar position as a free and independent city, united to Hungary in a temporary way, but a state in herself.

In so far as her self-determination is concerned, she counts on the sympathetic encouragement of America. In Fiume all the Mayors, all the Deputies, the Members of the Municipal Council, of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Courts, have always been Italian. This being the case, they think themselves free to dispose of their own fate and who can deny them the right of joining their Mother-Country?

We hear people say that if Fiume is united to Italy, the populations of the interior will not have an outlet to the sea. This is not true. Jugo-Slavia has excellent natural harbors between Buccari and Carlopago. It is not at all necessary to sacrifice the purely Italian character of Fiume in order to give an outlet to the interior. It is interesting to recall that before the War the commerce of Croatia at Fiume was only 7% of the total commercial output, the rest of the traffic belonging to Hungary. We are not enemies of the Jugo-Slavs, unless they invade our territory. Near Fiume they have the beautiful city of Susak which they may easily and naturally develop and enlarge. If we can each live within our own boundaries, peace and friendship will naturally follow.

The Mayor, the President of the National Council, and the Deputy of Fiume to the Hungarian Parliament were received in Paris by President Wilson, to whom the situation was clearly explained and the justice of our national aspirations demonstrated. President Wilson and the American delegates expressed themselves as profoundly impressed with their significance: it was even triumphantly reported that the silent Colonel House lifted his voice in their favor.

Fiume has a population of 35,000 native Italians. This population rules its own city, and the will of the citizens of Fiume must be seriously considered. We want to be Italians and Italy wants us to be Italians. We are like brothers who are at last reunited after centuries of suffering and struggles.

See also:

Dalmatia by Dr. Roberto Ghiglianovich

Trieste by Giorgio Pitacco

Trieste by Dr. Giorgio Pitacco

(Written by Giorgio Pitacco, taken from “The Journal of American History”, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1919.)

The Honourable Giorgio Pitacco, a Member of the Municipal Council of Trieste, was a former Deputy to the Parliament at Vienna. He was thus in a position for close observation and first-hand knowledge of the Austrian intrigue for crushing the Italian soul out of Trieste and Dalmatia. From 1900 to 1910 he watched the Austrians driving human hordes of Slovenes and Croats into Trieste — solely to outnumber the Italian census. Laibach [Ljubljana] was the centre of this Austrian activity which actually subsidized its hirelings of Slovene business men, agents, and tradesmen to emigrate into essentially Italian cities, especially Trieste. This is the true explanation of the sudden disproportionate increase of the Slav element in the immediate environs of Trieste.

Doctor Pitacco was sent to America by the Political Association of Unredeemed Italians as their President. This association is composed of all those from the Unredeemed Provinces who succeeded in escaping to Italy during the War. It has over 10,000 members from Trieste, Istria, Trentino, Fiume, and Dalmatia. Among them are eleven Deputies to the Parliament at Vienna, thirty-five Deputies to the Provincial Diets, and fifty Mayors. The name of the Association explains itself; it was formed to crystallize the national determination of the Unredeemed Provinces.

– The Editors.

TRIESTE

By Doctor Giorgio Pitacco

Municipal Councillor of Trieste; Former Deputy to the Austrian Parliament

We have come to America in this period in which the future of our Unredeemed Country is to be decided, to implore the support of the generous American people. America, who, like Italy, entered the War of its own accord, for liberty and justice, will surely not permit the gravest kind of injustice to be perpetuated in separating from their Mother-Country provinces which always were, are, and are determined to remain, Italian.

Trieste, like the rest of Istria, as a sign of protest, refused to send representatives to the Austrian Parliament, in the hope that some day they might be able to send them to the Italian Parliament. The Provincial Diet of Istria, when called upon to elect its Deputies to the Parliament of Vienna in 1867, replied, "Not one," and dissolved the meeting. After universal suffrage was introduced, the Italians were obliged to participate in the political elections and send their Deputies, in order to defend their national existence and their economic interests.

After 1866, Austria, with the motive of depriving Italy of every claim to the territory along the Adriatic Sea, which had always been Italian, began a systematic plan of destruction of the indigenous Italian element, in which enterprise she received the effective support of the Croatians and Slovenes. All the Government offices were entrusted to the Slavs, to the exclusion of the Italians. In Trieste, for example, a city with a majority of 200,000 Italians in a population of 250,000, the whole personnel of the Department of Post, Railroads, Judiciary, Ports, and Customs, was Slav. The employees were sent from Carniola, Carintia, Stiria, and from other provinces that had nothing in common with the city of Trieste, either in language or customs. In one day alone they transported 700 families of Croatian and German railroad men, aggregating 5,000 persons in all, to Trieste. This system, which was carried out further by the order that the Italians should be deported for every small offense, was intended to secure for the Austrian Government a preponderant number of Slavs who had been taught to antagonize the Italians. For the same purpose the census was compiled, using figures so evidently false that the Central Committee of Vienna could not explain the sudden reduction of the Italian population from 78.27% to 62.31%, compared to an increase of 100% of the Slav population. This Committee, therefore, had to admit that the census was not reliable.

In spite of all this, the Italian character of Trieste was ardently maintained through the many Italian schools for which the community of Trieste alone paid an annual sum of over two and a half million crowns.

Trieste and Istria, which form a geographic whole, have always loyally demonstrated their great attachment to Italy, especially during this War. Many thousands of men from Trieste, Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia volunteered in the Italian Army. Of these, hundreds died in action and eight were decorated with the gold medal for extraordinary acts of heroism. All these volunteers faced a double death: that on the battlefield, and that on the gallows, if they were captured, as in the case of Nazario Sauro from Istria, Francesco Riamondo from Spalato, and Cesare Battisti from Trento.

In the Parliament at Vienna, the Italian Deputies have held memorable debates. The one in defense of the municipal autonomy of Trieste in 1906, against the decree which deprived the city of its administrative independence, was particularly famous. Not a single one of the representatives of the various other peoples which formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire supported the Italians, with the exception of the Roumanians, who upheld them in their fight against this arbitrary act of the Government.

This war has brought into high relief the utter vileness of the reactionary and autocratic Government of Vienna. It, alas, is not yet obliterated, since it survives in the hatred of other peoples who are trying to reorganize themselves on the spoils of Austria.

Throughout the War, the Italian people have displayed wonderful qualities, on the battlefield and at home. A people whose wounded soldiers requested the physicians to attend to the enemy first, because they were more seriously wounded, whose same soldiers offered their own bread to their prisoners, because they knew them to be more hungry, are a people who can look the future straight in the face and await the triumph of Justice over every wicked intrigue.

See also:

Fiume by Dr. Gino Antoni

Dalmatia by Dr. Roberto Ghiglianovich