ADRIATIC SORE SPOT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25203, 16 May 1945, Page 5

ADRIATIC SORE SPOT

TRIESTE AND ITS HINTERLAND

HISTORIC CAUSES OF TODAY'S DISPUTE

In the Balkans, it has been said, history belongs to the present. This is certainly true of the small but important and troubled region at the top of the Adriatic, where the Slav an<i Italian worlds meet. Only about 130 miles from north to south and at* most 50 miles wide, it is Italian territory. It has no really satisfactory name as a whole, but includes the Istrian Peninsula, which forms-part of Yenezia Giulia, as well as the Julian -March, which is the south-western portion of Carniola. The Julian Region, as perhaps it may best be called, is in the news at present because the dominant group in Yugoslavia, that of Marshal Tito, has militarily occupied most of it and ia firmly asserting historical and ethnic claims to permanent possession. The Allied Mediterranean Command, using the New Zealand Division, has taken charge of the dock area of the great port of Trieste, and Britain and the United States, with the approval of the Italian Government, have decided that Trieste shall remain under Allied military control until its fate can be settled at the Peace Conference. The future of the whole region is a matter of international interest. In the first place, there .will certainly be continual trouble and friction unless an equitable boundary can be drawn between Italy and Yugoslavia, and some means found whereby areas of mixed Italian and Slovene population can be peaceably governed with due regard for the economic welfare of themselves and their neighbours. Secondly, the region, and especially the great port of Trieste, is an important channel of trade between Middle Europe and the outer world. With the return of peace, countries such as Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary will be concerned again to obtain good port, customs and railway facilities, and Italian shipping lines will seek to make it a terminus once more. Mixture ol Peoples Intermingling of peoples has caused much trouble in the past and may continue to do so. Although the region has been a part of the Italian State since November, 1920, a majority of the population are Slovenes, except in Trieste* and the Italian half of the lesser port of Fiume. The only guide to relative numbers is the last AustroHungarian census of 1910, since all Italian censuses have ignored differences of nationality, for political reasons. On this' basis it is estimated that before Italy entered the war there were about 300,000 Italians and 200.000 Slavs in the mixed area. Of these, some 170,000 Italians and 80,000 Slavs lived in Trieste. A further 400,000 Slavs were estimated to be in purely Slav areas within the Italian frontier. After a sorry record of Italian and German oppression and bloodshed in the war, it is not surprising that reports of Yugoslav reprisals,_ including the deportation or shooting of Italian peasants, should have been circulated in the past few days. If there is any truth in these, Britain and the United States will be strengthened in their determination to have Trieste and its hinterland fully discussed at the Peace Conference with a view to permanently reducing the inflammation there. The Julian Region has been a land of mixed populations and boundary disputes for many centuries. Geography affected its history from early times, because the Danube Vallev provided a routewav for invasion's of South-eastern

and Central Europe by barbarian, hordes from the plains of Southern Russia. The most direct route to the Mediterranean lands and their rich cities full of plunder lay south-westward from the Danube over the low mountain belt which forms a south-eastward continuation of the Julian Alps, and so to the head of the Adriatic and the Lombard Plain. This mountain belt is not alpine, but is what geologists call a karst, an elevated mass of soft limestone with many sumps and underground water channels, and generally infertile owing to the quick disappearance of rain-water. There is no main divide, and the highest points do not rise much above 4500 ft. The lowest pass, that of Postumia, k not quite 2000 ft and the two other principal ones, Piedecolle and Idria. rfre 2650 ft and 2400 ft respectively. The Istrian Peninsula, at the top oi which Trieste is situated with Fiume on the other side, is nowhere more than a few hundred feet high and is most fertile and a notable producer of fruit, crops and wine. It lias been well populated since Roman times. Fifth'Oentury Deportation The Slovenes were brought into the region about the fifth'century' from Polesft, near'the Pripet Marshes, as slaves of the Avars, a marauding people who ranged over a great part oi Southeastern Europe in the Dark Ages. They thus provided an early instance of the enforced mass-transfer of populations, which some people mistakenly suppose to he a modern expedient. . Some centuries later the region rereceived its distinctive character as an outpost of the northern peoples, first the Franks and then the Germans. In 3335 it became part of the Habsburg dominions, serving as a wedge toward the Adriatic. Then followed a struggle for hegemony with the growing maritime Republic of Venice, which acquired and populated a string of coastal towns from Trieste south-east along the Dalmatian coast. Eventually Napoleon, in 1809, destroyed the Venetian Republic, took the Austrian territories and set up a French dependency under the name of the lllyrian Provinces. Austria recovered them by the Treaty of Paris in IBH and. ivas awarded Lomhardy and _ Venetia as well by the Treaty of Vienna in 1915. The' Slav inhabitants were mere spectators of these proceedings. Bargaining In World War I. Early in the nineteenth century Austria-Hungary constructed an important railway network providing access to its only tidewater outlet on the Adriatic. The modern port of Trieste was built from 1868 onward and shipping lines were subsidised as part of a bid for world trade. When Venice and Lombardv were lost to the new Italian State, Trieste and Istria remained Austrian and until 1920 were regarded as Italia Irredenta. By the secret Pact of London, in 1915, France and Britain undertook to reward Italy with the Trentino, the Julian March, Northern Dnlmatia and other Austrian and Turkish territories if she would join in the war against Austria. At Versailles Italy asserted these claims in full, but they were strongly resisted by President Wilson, who, however, proposed "a rectification

By a Staff Correspondent

of the Italian frontiers on clearly recognisable national lines." His experts drew a boundary from the watershed of the Julian Alps through the mountain belt and down the Istrian Peninsula, allotting about two-thirds of the latter to Italy and one-third to the new Yugoslav State. This line was and is recognised to be an accurate division between the purely Slav areas and the mixed areas, but Italy viewed it with disfavour and the proposal came to nothing. In September, 1919, D'Annunzio, with official Italian connivance, seized Fiume. Negotiations were delayed until late in 1920, when Italy was able to bring enough influence to bear to obtain the Treaty of Ilapallo, whereby she obtained a strategic frontier placed considerably east of the southern part of the Wilson Line and 'running well beyond the mountain passes. The treaty imposed Italian wishes on the Yugoslavs, who lost 450,000 people. Italy immediately broke pledges she had given not to oppress or denationalise the Slovenes or to interfere with their language and cultural institutions. After 1922 the Fascists stepped up the pace. They closed Croat and Slovene schools, suppressed newspapers, proscribed the language, changed names, and drove out peasants and replaced them with Italian settlers. Importance of Railways Italian participation in the war brought more oppression. The strategic frontier and militarv roads greatly helped the invasion of Western Slovenia. The railways became of great importance because they were on the route from the Central European war factories to Italy and North Africa. Slav peasants were forbidden to approach within a kilometre of. them, except in the towns, on pain of being" instantly shot. By the middle of 1942 nearly 1600 hostages had been executed by the Germans, 16 villages razed and over 160,000 Slovenes deported to Germany and Ostland. The Italians by that time had shot several thousand people and razed 42 villages. The .Yugoslav desire for retribution is understandable. Writers who have discussed the future of the Julian Region in recent months, including at least one Italian Liberal, consider that for the peace and welfare of the population and the maintenance of international trade through the ports it will be essential to re-draw a boundary on the Wilson Line, with such amendments as an impartial and accurate, census 'may indicate, in order to place under Yugoslav control all areas containing no appreciable numbers of Italians. There remains the problem of the mixed areas, which consist of the ports and the western part of the Istrian Peninsula. To whichever State they are allotted, these are likely to require some external supervising authority, such as the new International Organisation, with powers to ensure that the Slovene minority and the Italian majority enjoy equal political, economic and other rights, ana that both languages and cultures are respected.