The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” MONDAY, JULY 17, 1939. The Gateway To Italy

Northern Advocate, 17 July 1939, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST”

MONDAY, JULY 17, 1939. The Gateway To Italy

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper

JNTERESTING chapter ox post-war history culminated last week in the expulsion of foreigners from the Italian Tyrol. Prior to the Anschluss this former Austrian territory, ceded to Italy at Versailles, was bounded on the north by the Austrian frontier, but the merger of Austria with the Reich gave Italy and Germany a common frontier, and raised questions of some delicacy concerning the Tyrolese province now under the Italian flag.

During the war the borders of this region, known then as the South Tyrol, or Trentina, and now officially termed by Italy the Tridentina, were the scene of bitter and spectacular mountain warfare. Fighting went on above the snowline. The mountain slopes were defaced with barbed wire. Sentries in the snow wore white overalls. Trenches were manned up to heights of 10,000 feet. In this type of fighting the Italian Alpine troops Were superb, yet, it was amid the rocky heights on the Italian left that the combined Austrian and German forces obtained the first impetus of their great victory at Caporetto.

In spite of Caporetto the Italians emerged on the winning side and claimed the spoils promised them in the Treaty of London signed between Britain, France and Italy, in May, 1915, when Italy was selling her war services to the highest bidder. The allies" bid highest. Italy was promised, among other territory, the Brenner frontier. This meant that her frontier, instead of lying across the vulnerable valleys of the South Tyrol, was pushed up to the supreme mountain ridge overlooking Austria’s famous Inn valley.

Italy’s strategic gain was enormous, as it had long been recognised that the Brenner Pass dominated the gateway to Italy. But the transfer of the territory was recognised as one of, the worst injustices perpetrated at Versailles, as it violated the principle of self-determination, and placed nearly 250,000 people, of German origin and descent, under an alien Government. These Tyrolese were deeply resentful of their fate. Their resentment deepened when, in 1923, the Fascist Government imposed on them harsh decrees forcing them to relinquish their Germanic speech and submit to the process of Italianisation. The result was to strengthen the rebellious feelings of*these unwilling subjects of Italy, and, being traditionally stubborn and independent, they maintained a persistent agitation which was a disturbing factor in Italian relations with Germany. Eventually Mussolini capitulated in 1934 by withdrawing the ban on German speech and customs, but the Tyrolese were still very disgruntled. As Germany and Italy drew closer together, it apparently became desirable to eliminate this source of possible discord, and so the two Powers seemed to have decided between them to return the 250,000 Tyrolese to the Reich. Their farms and villages, however, are to remain within Italy’s borders, so the solution is not likely to be very satisfactory.

In the meantime, recognising that in the event of hostilities against a common enemy, the Brenner frontier will become a military highway of vital importance, enormous fortifications have been built there. Important tourist roads traverse the Brenner, ‘Stevio and Gross Glockner Passes, but in the past year or two any tourists who dared to take out a camera, or even stop his car, near any of the mountain fortifications would have risked immediate arrest. Last September a New Zealander motoring over the Gross Glockner noticed that new fortifications, then under construction, were hidden by immense screens, while soldiers, all along the road, prevented tourists from showing any undue curiosity.

It is possibly because military activity in the region is being intensified that the expulsion of all foreigners has now been ordered. Another possible reason is the fear of Italy and Germany that the attempt to remove the Tyrolese in the Tridentina from their ancestral farms and hamlets, where the same families have dwelt for generations, may cause such disturbances amjong the population that it would be prudent to have no foreign eyewitnesses. In view of the solicitude shown by Germany and Italy for depressed minorities elsewhere, it is illuminating to see that the Tyrolese are being treated as the mere pawns of the Axis Powers. Mussolini and Hitler have arranged their future to suit their own military and political cpnvenience.