ITALY AND YUGO-SLAVIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 21, 21 December 1932, Page 6

ITALY AND YUGO-SLAVIA.

A message from London stating that Yugo-Slavia is preparing to defend her frontiers against her western and northern neighbours is an indication of the tension that is frequently created among the Balkan States' and of the hostility that smoulders between Italy and Yugo-Slavia. The latter, the message adds, is convinced that Italy’s toleration of violent anti-Slav demonstrations is part of a deliberate campaign. Two years ago Italy and Yugoslavia were far from cordial in their relations, and one report went so far as to say that war between the two countries was not an impossibility. The root of the trouble lay in the question of the rights of Italian subjects of Yugo-Slav origin. They alleged unfair treatment at the hands of Italian authorities and declared that some day they must be again united with their fellow Slavs. Italy countered this with a charge that the Yugo-Slavs had instituted a reign of terror against the Fascist authorities, in which the nationalist societies of Yugoslavia had rendered help, while the Government at Belgrade was secretly conniving. In September, 1930, four youths were arrested by the Fascists for alleged complicity in an attempt to blow up a newspaper office at Trieste and were shot after a summary trial. There were immediate repercussions throughoiit Yugoslavia and other States in the Balkans, and for a time it appeared that the long-standing tension would reach a grave climax. Fortunately, wiser counsels prevailed and the bitter demonstrations against Italy subsided. That the trouble has been smouldering since then is evidenced by the protest made by Signor Mussolini to Yugo-Slavia against “demonstrations of unceasing hostility to Italy.” He has denied any intention of forcing war upon his neighbour, but has inferentially laid the blame for some of the disturbances upon people in high political circles in Yugo-Slavia. It is most likely, however, that, as in the incidents of two years ago when the tension was more severely strained than apparently at present, the trouble will not advance further than recording disapproval of the incidents alleged to have taken place.