Two Right
THE problem of the South Tyrol--or the Alto Adige, as the Italians call it—is not, measured against the world's other minority difficulties, very urgent. It is a nuisance, rather than a menace. Still, it is worth taking trouble over— if only to demonstrate that the nations of the West can settle their differences sensibly and amicably.
In the Spectator this week Sarah Gainham gives a Vienna-eye-view of the subject. But the Italians, too, have a case —though they present it badly. Standard propaganda works available here, such as Renato Cajoli's The Alto Adige 'Question,' are so casuistical in their approach (Cajoli devotes his introduction to discussing whether it is really a 'question' at all) and so dis- agreeably written that the inquiring foreigner might imagine they were rather heavy-handed satires put out by the Austrian Embassy. Italian insistence, too, that the matter was all settled by the Gruber/de Gasperi arrangement is fool- ish: circumstances were different in 1946.
The Italians, however, have two arguments in their favour that are rarely heard in the German- speaking countries. The first is the character of the liolkspartei, which represents the German- speaking minority in the South Tyrol : it has Nazi undertones; some of its more aggressive propa- gandists were Goebbels men; and its apartheid policy appears to be designed not simply to preserve the minority aloof from the contamina- tion of Italian influence, but to propagate the notion that the Italians are an inferior race. It may be true, though the Italians dispute it, that the Austrians were tricked in the 1946 agreement; because though the predominantly German- speaking Bolzano gained some autonomy it was linked with the predominantly Italian Trento, thereby guaranteeing an Italian majority in the province. But anybody who has read Vo/kspartei propaganda may be pardoned for suspecting that the Germans are receiving much less harsh treat- ment at Italian hands than an Italian minority could hope for under government by the Volks- parte i.
As for the statistics showing discrimination against the minority in the matter of civil jobs, it is necessary to remember that the minority is well-off—much better off than most Italians on the peninsula. If German-speakers do not enter the civil service, the main reason is that civil servants in Italy arc indifferently paid and (or so the minority thinks) of inferior social standing.
—apart from the possible inconvenience of being liable for transfer in the line of duty to other parts of Italy. The job statistics may appear to present a black picture, but translated into human terms the minority has little reason to feel oppressed.
Yet this is not to deny that the minority has grievances. As in so many situations of this kind ---in Israel, and in Ireland—it is not a case of one side being right and the other wrong. They are both right: it is history which has done the wrong —which has left a situation which cannot easily be resolved. In this case, though, the differences arc not so great that they could not be bridged, given goodwill on both sides. And they should be bridged as soon as possible; for if action is not taken quickly; there is a danger that the terrorist elements in the Volkspartei, chafing under the restraint so long urged by the Austrian Government, may break loose. destroying any prospect of continued friendship between the two nations, and imperilling the unity of the West.
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