OF THE ADRIATIC PROBLEM, 515 



route has a very real interest in the settlement of this question. 

 According to the settlement offered Italy, Trieste would go to Italy 

 and Fiume to Jugoslavia. The Italian port could then supply the 

 hinterland by a line of rail which would not have to cross Jugoslav 

 territory ; while Fiume could supply the same hinterland by a line 

 not touching Italian possessions. This would insure freedom of 

 commerce to all, both ports and routes being secure from possible 

 interference by a jealous neighbor. All the world would profit 

 from such an equitable arrangement, assuring equality of oppor- 

 tunity to all. 



Italy's economic interest in Fiume is necessarily slight. Even if 

 one granted her demand that more than half a million Jugoslavs be 

 placed under her dominion in order to extend her frontier to in- 

 clude the few thousand Italians in Fiume, the port would remain 

 at the most remote corner of her territory. It is hardly conceiv- 

 able that Italian commerce would pass by the much more convenient 

 Trieste in order to reach a more distant and less serviceable port. 



There was no natural harbor at Fiume. The artificial harbor 

 was constructed by the Hungarian government at great expense. 

 Before the war it was found to be inadequate, and plans were 

 formulated for its enlargement and improvement. These plans will 

 entail a very large expenditure of government funds, and it is diffi- 

 cult to believe that Italy will ever be prepared to expend her 

 millions for the development of an artificial peripheral port to com- 

 pete with the more accessible port of Trieste. Especially is this 

 true when we remember that Italy considered it essential that her 

 eastern frontier should be pushed 12 or 15 miles east of Trieste for 

 the protection of its port works. At Fiume the frontier proposed 

 by Italy would pass through one of the basins of the port, so that a 

 hostile advance of a few thousand yards would deliver the entire 

 port into enemy hands. If Italy could not afford to develop Trieste 

 without adequate territorial protection, she could hardly afford to 

 develop the much more remote Fiume without any protection. And 

 the supreme interest of the people of Fiume, Italians as well as 

 Jugoslavs, is to have their port become one of the great commercial 

 gateways of Europe. 



