LANDS DESIRED BY ITALY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 24 May 1915, Page 5

LANDS DESIRED BY ITALY.

TRENT, ISTRIA, DALMATIA. Italia Irredenta (or "Unredeemed Italy"; consists of the Italian-speaking districts of Austria-Hungary. They are (I) the Trontino or soutnern portion of the Austrian Tyrol; (2; Trieste and lstria;^ and (3) to & slignt extent Dalmatia. The Italian population of these regions amounts altogether to about h million. In the Trentino and Trieste it constitutes tho majority. The Trentino, or Italian-speaking, portion of the Austrian Tyrol, is tbe narrow tongue of Austrian territory that runs southward between Lombardy and Venice as far as Lago di Garda. It is a region of high Alps, narrow valleys, and gorges; one of the beauty spots of Europe. In manners, custom, dress language, and sentiment, the population is Italian. From the Austrian, and even more from the German point of view, the heights and passes of the Trentino form an ideal strategical frontier. Access from the south ■is chiefly along ike 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 only eighty odd miles to the north; Munich and Southern Germany would be at its mercy. | Until nearly the end of the eighteenth century the province of Istria^ formed part of the Republic of Venice. To-day i the majority of the population is said to he Slav, thanks to the systematic Slay | colonisation by the Austrian authorities and pressure upon the Italian population. In Trieste, the anti-Italian pol- | icy pursued when Prince Hohenlohe Avas Governor caused great irritation in Italy. Dniroatia has only a small percentage of Italians, but, strategically, its indented and many-isled coast is of vital importance for the naval command of the Adriatic. Italy's desire, in fact, for the possession of the Dalmatian coastline and of Dvnnzzo and Valona is based not upon "Irredentism," but upon her intention to make and keep the Adriatic an Italian lake. Possession of the opposite const of that sea would shelter nearly one-half of Italy's long and exposed coastline from attack.