SAN MARINO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 43, 20 January 1936, Page 8

SAN MARINO.

** OLDEST EUROPEAN STATE. a tinyTiepublic. Mr G. W. Harriott writes in tlip Sydney Morning Herald:— ' There was news in the cables recently of a grave international crisis between San Marino and Turkey, because the former refused to admit a lurk, as a state of war still exists between these countries. It appears that the signatories of the Treaties of Sevres and Lausanne forgot all about Italy’s doughty little ally, who has consequently been in a state of war for the best part of 20 vears. San Marino, thus dramatically thrust into the limelight, is a remarkable community. Perched on a precipitous rock in Northern Italy, some miles to the south-west of Rimini, it maintains a stalwart independence. With a frontier line of 24 miles, an area of 38 square miles, and a population of about 14,000, it is the smallest republic in the world, and claims, in addition, the proud di_sdinction of being the oldest State in Europe. A TROUBLED HISTORY. Tradition has it that the republic was founded during the persecutions under Diocletian, by St. Marinus, whose bones are still preserved in the principal church. It adopted a communal Constitution in the tenth _ century, and sturdy republicans its citizens have remained to this day. It lias had vicissitudes a-many. It was interdicted by the Pope in 1247 for supporting the Ghibellene faction; successfully resisted the attacks of the powerful do Malatesta; fell into the hands of Caesar Borgia in 1503, and regained its freedom. In the thirteenth century it cast in its lot with the House of Urbino, but on the annexation of the Duchy to the Papal States in 1631, its independence was recognised by the Pope. Cardinal Albft'oni. in 1789, made the last determined' attempt against the republic’s independence, which was, however, restored the folowing year, and recognised by Napoleon.