ITALY'S DESTINY

North Otago Times, Issue 13236, 6 March 1915, Page 2

ITALY'S DESTINY

• HER. QUARREL WITH AUSTRIA. ; .HOPING FOR REVENGE. ' (By J. A. Sinclair Poolcy, corresponden ; at Rome for the Loudon Dail Express.) It would appear that Italy has w 1 deeided that the day has come who 1 the cause for whiPh Guglielmo Oberdn gave his life thirty-two years ago sha become the cause of the Italian natioi More thnn - SOO meetings were licl throughout Italy on Sunday to con uiemorate the death of the young sti (lent who \yas hanged by the Austria authorities in Trieste on the false at cusation of attempting the life of th Emperor. Oberdnn's last words, n voked by hundreds of orators on Sm day, were: "I die hhppy, because hope that my dcatluwill help in a shoi time to unite my dear Trieste to he mother country. Viva 1' Italia!" The Triple Alliance is slill in Pxisl ence, Prince von Bulow has made vai efforts tn offer further allurements o the port nf Germany, but the Italia people have made up their minds tha the hour for the redemption of Treu and Trieste lias-arrived. Never since f have lived in ltal ( /iiave I seen such enthusiasm as wn created throughout the country by Sun day's coinmeinoriition, Willi the en coption • of a few (Clerical and pit Triple Alliance, papers, the Press o Italy is unanimous in demanding wa with Austria. The speeches were no curtailed by the police or the article adapted by the censor. In the street demonstrations the polic exercised their powers with extraordi nary self-control, though they success fully prevented any hostile demonstrn tinns Inking place against the Am trinn Embassies or Consulates, The approach of the new year i greeted in Italy with something lild joy and satisfaction. The country in sists on war with Austria, and the re vindication of those rights which an hers, The blood of thousands nf mar tyrs calls for revenge from the'pro vinces across the border. Already in the Trenfiuo ninoly-niiii per'cent, of the available manhood havi been forced into the Austrian Army ti form which Oberdan threw away fron him on the scaffold. In Dalmatia am [stria scores of women and childrei have been hurried off to prisons as host ages for the good behaviour of the pro viuces. The pin-pricking policy of tin Prince Governor of Trieste in expellinj from the factories all Italian labour, ii forbidding the Italian dag, and in man} other petty ways, lias inspired bittei feeling among the people. Since the day of Augustus even strategist and politician has rceoguisei the fact that (lie natural borders ol Italy include the Venezia Tridentins and the Veiiczin Giulia, with a popula tion of half a million Italians, now in the hands of Austria. Dante in hi; "Inferno" wrote:— | "Or as at Pola, near Quarnaro's Gulf, That closes Italy and leaves her bounds."| Ma/.ziui, the true founder of Italian liberty, said; "The religion of ante is mine and should be that of ns all The -Julian Alps are ours, as are thf Caruic, of which they are Ihe appendix The Istriaii littoral is the eastern part as it is the complement, of the Yene tiau littoral," Napoleon the Great wished the boundaries of the Italian Kingdom to include all the province of the Alto Adige, At Germany's Mercy, "With the higher Adige in the hand's of the Aiistrinus, Milan, Brescia, and Venice are at their mercy. The Trentino and Istria are from the strategical point of view an absolute necessity for Italy, and if in the last thirty-five years she has not been attacked iii that quarter it is due only to the existence of the Triple Alliance, The opportunity has now come when Italy can rid •herself of the Triple Alliance and nt the same time obtain her natural borders. . At the present moment there are only two parties in Italy as far as the wear is concerned—the neutralists and the interventionists, the latter being those who would interfere on the side of the Allies. At the beginning of the war there was a certain number of people who I bought that Italy should have stuck to her alliance, but these have discreetly disappeared from view. Signer (iiot littl's revelations in the Chamber proving that Austrians intended io attack Servia the year before, have disposed of them. Italians of all classes, including the neutralists, agree In thinking that the war was a war of aggression on.the part of the Central Powers, but the neutral party think the country should not intervene, because a certain portion of her moral prestige. These are in the great majority, and voice the sentiments of the people. (lermaiiy's coup in calling Turkey to her aid lias also had a great moral effect in breaking down her cause, With Germany, Austria, and Turkey victorious, all the fruits of the.Libyan campaign would be lost, and Italy would for ever remain under the thumb nf the Triple Alliance, if, indeed, she did not have to yield n.p some nf her own provinces In satisfy tho chilms nf the Kaiser. It is, therefore not only (lie appeal of Oberdan which will cail her to war in the spring, but her own existence as a Mediterranean Power and her claim til lie tlie predominant Power in the Adibitlitj and with her when she lights will be limiiniinla and Bulgaria, These are the results which ovorv true Italian hopes that .1015 will brin'j for his countrv,