E. — GEOGRAPHY. HI 



the population is German, but here, as in Bohemia, geographical 

 conditions appear to speak the final word. Strategically also the 

 frontier is good, and will do much to allay ItaHan anxiety with regard 

 to the future. Hence, although ethnical conditions are to some extent 

 ignored, the settlement which has been made will probably be a lasting 

 one. 



On the east the natural frontier of Italy obviously runs across the 

 uplands from some point near the eastern extremity of the Carnic 

 Alps to the Adriatic. The pre-war frontier was unsatisfactory for one 

 reason because it assigned to Austria the essentially Italian region of 

 ih,3 lower Isonzo. But once the lowlands are left on the west the 

 uplands which border them on t"he east, whether Alpine or Karst, 

 mark the natural Hmits of the Italian Kingdom, and beyond a position 

 On them for strategic reasons the Italians have no claims in this direc- 

 tion except what they can establish on ethnical grounds. To these, 

 therefore, we turn. In Carniola the Slovenes are in a large majority, 

 and in Gorizia they also form the bulk of the population. On the 

 other hand, in the town and district of Trieste the Italians predominate, 

 and they also form a solid block on the west coast of Istria, though 

 the rest of that country is peopled mainly by Slovenes. It seems to 

 follow, therefore, that the plains of the Isonzo, the district of Trieste, 

 and the west coast of Istria, with as much of the neighbouring upland 

 as is necessary to secure their safety and communications, should be 

 Italian and that the remainder should pass to the Jugo-Slavs. The 

 so-called Wilson line, which runs from the neighbourhood of Tarvis 

 to the mouth of the Arsa, met these requirements fairly 

 well, though it placed from 300,000 to 400,000 Jugo-Slavs under 

 Italian rule, to less than 50,000 Italians, half of whom are 

 in Fiume itself transferred to the Jugo-Slavs. Any additional 

 territory must, by incorporating a larger aHen element, be a 

 source of weakness and not of strength to Italy. To Fiume the 

 Italians have no claim be5'ond the fact that in the town itself they 

 slightly outnumber the Croats, though in the double town of Fiume- 

 Sushak there is a large Slav majority. Beyond the sentimental reasons 

 which they urge in public, however, there is the economic argument, 

 which, perhaps wisely, they keep in the background. So long as 

 Trieste and Fiume belonged to the same empire the limits within 

 which each operated were fairly well defined, but if Fiume become 

 Jugo-Slav it will not only prove a serious rival to Trieste, but will 

 prevent Italy from exercising absolute control over much of the trade 

 of Central Europe. For Trieste itself Italy has in truth little need, 

 and the present condition of that city is eloquent testimony of the 

 extent to which it depended for its prosperity upon the Austrian and 

 German Empires. In the interests, then, not only of Jugo-Slavia 

 but of Europe generally, Fiume must not become' Italian, and the 

 idea of constituting it a Free State might well be abandoned. lis 

 development is more fully assured as the one gi-eat port of Jngo-Slavia 

 than under any other fonn of government. 



"With regard to Italian claims in the Adriatic, little need be said. 

 To the Dalmatian coast Italy lias no riglit either on geographical or on 



