AUSTRIA'S PERIL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12541, 12 May 1915, Page 1

AUSTRIA'S PERIL.

ITALIA IRREDENTA

MOVEMENT ON THE FRONTIER

(Daily Chronicle.)

That- Italy is near the parting of the ways is shown by every telegram that now conies from Rome. It is known that she desires to fulfil her traditional aspirations and to round off her national unity by the incorporation cf the Italian communities across the frontier that still remain under Austrian rule. Whether she will achieve her object by diplomacy or by war depends upon Vicuna. Germany is favorable to the Italian demands, but her Ally is pro" iug unexpectedly stiff-necked, and matters are rapidly approaching a crisis. In order to make the situation fully intelligible, we append a brief account of the- territories in dispute.-

ITALIA IRREDENTA (of "Unredeemed Italy") consists of the Italianspeaking districts of Austria-Hungary. They are (1) the Trentino or southern portion ol the Austrian Tyrol; (2) Trieste and Istria: and (3) to a slight extent Daimatia. The Italian population of thee regions amounts altogether to about a million. In the Trentino and Trieste it constitutes the majority.

THE TRENTINO. or Italian-speaking portion of the Austrian Tyrol, is the narrow tongue of Austrian tertitory thafc runs southward between Lombardy and Venice as far as Lago di Garda. ,lt is a region of high alps, narrow valleys and gorges; one of the beautyspots of Europe. In manners, custom, dress, languageaud sentiment the population is Italian. The towns and villages not only have. Italian names, but have a typically Italian asnect. Save 'for a few hotelkeepers officials and military men, no one speaks German. In culture the Trenthio is as Italian as Lombardy. Trentino the capital (30,000 inhabitants), is proud of its statue of Dante and its beautiful Italian Renascence churches. A STRATEGIC WALL.

On the other hand, the rogion is very sparsely inhabited. It is by universal admission administered well, if unsympathetieally. Front the Austrian, and even more" from the German, point ot view, its heights and passes form an. ideal strategical frontier. Access from the south is chiefly along the Adige valley, which narrows into deep gorges that a handful might hold against a host. A strong hostile army advancing as far as Trent would have the Bavarian -frontier onlv eighty odd miles to the north; Munich and Southern Gc.rmanv would he at its mercy.

After the Prussian defeat of the Austrian* at- Koniggratz in July, 1866 Vienna, made peace with Berlin, and Piedmont was left with the alternative of continuing the war with. Austria, single-banded, or of accepting the cession of Venice and making peace at once. She chose the latter. __ Austria's condition for surrendering eniee was that the Trentino. which at the moment was occuniied by Garibaldi and his Volunteers, "should be evacuated. Garibaldi, though nominally an irregular, was really attached to the Italian armies, and, therefore, compelled to obey instructions from headquarters. When the order reached him he uttered his famous phrase of 'reluctant assent. "I. will obey." That day Italian Irredentism was born. It has remained a force, in Italian politics ever since.

1 'FAITHFULLEST TRIESTE. ! ' TRIESTE is the other great obiocti o'.' Italian desires. It is Austria's commercial outlet to the sea, and one of the great ports of the world. Ten or fifteen years auo nearly two-thirds ot tlie population'(in 1900'. 1GO.000) were Italian. That proportion is said te have dwindled now to little more than half, if not to an actual minority. The Italians constitute the banking, trading, and prosperous middle class. The rest of the population is mainly Slav. Until comparatively recently Trieste remained curiously loyal to Austria. It remained steadfastly faithful to Vienna throughout the Italian and Hungarian revolutions and earned the title of Cita Fidelissima. One of Austria's most gratuitous and characteristic stupidities lias heeii the systematic annoyance and persecution of Italian Trieste of late years, particularly under the Governorship of Prince Hohenlohe. The resulthas been deep and growing irritation in Italy and the .alienation of all sympathy among the Italians of Trieste. Until nearly the end of the eighteenth century the province of T.STRIA formed part of the Republic of Venice. Today the majority of the population is said to he Slav, thanks to systematic, Slav colonisation by the Austrian authorities and pro-sure upon the Italian ponulation. DALMATIA has only a small percentage of Italians, hut. strategically, its indented and mauy.islcd coast is of vital import-ail.":- for the naval, command of the Adriatic. Italy's desire, in fact, for the possession of the Dalmatian coastline and of Durazzo and Valona is based not upon "Trredentism," but upon her intention to mako -and keep the Adriatic an Italian lake. Possession of the opposite coast of that sea would shelter nearly one-half o* Italy's long and exposed coastline from attack.