LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
AUSTRIAN POSSIBILITIES.
rro 17.11 Eames or vi, " Sesceiros."/ ftie,—May I venture -to make. a few remarks on one point in the excellent article under the above heading? Among the countries and provinces which it is there suggested might be united to form a South German Federal State .Tirol is included. " Tirol " may have been used, as it so often is, to denominate the region which extends feom the Bavarian frontier to the mountain chain which is traversed by the Brenner Pass; but if used in its less limited sense, as, with the Vorarlberg, making up the Principality of Tirol and Vorarlberg, the above proposal would imply that the 9.'reatino ahould remain under Austria, and this I feel sure would not be the desire of the writer of the article. The complaint of our Italian Allies is not only that a large number of Italians are under foreign rule, but that Italy is exposed to continual danger by the configuration of the frontier which was, traced in 1866, and which was such as to leave the heads of all the valleys in the hands of, the Austrians. This is what has, in the present war, added so immensely to the difficulties of Italy's task.. The important principle of nationality is, we all know, one, which will be fully recognized, as far as possible, in the rearrangement which will follow the war. But can it, with due regard to the safety of Italy, be carried out absolutely? Were this done, were all regions in which those of Teutonic rape are in the majority to be left wider Auptria, Italy would be left in the same position of danger, in which she has hitherto been, with the heads of the valleys i,n Austrian hands. She would continue to occupy as to the form of her territory the very opposite of the position of Aristotle's ideal Stittel-- "scpis [ro. €180t x(Spas] roXe,utocr thou 8sele3oNne" The only security for her in this direction will be that the frontier should be traced along the crest of the chain which would separate North 'Tirol from South Tirol, running from the Reschenscheideck (at the head of the Valley of the Adige) on the west, round by the Brenner (at the head of the Valley of the Ctreick) on the north, to the Toblachermoos (at the head of- the Western Pustherthal) on the east. This would bring under Italian rule about three thousand lee hundred square miles- of country, most' of whose inhabitants are Teutonic; but of this area far the larger part is eceupied by mountains, while the only important town in it is Risen, -whose population in„ 1872 was under ten thousand, some of them Italians, and in several of the lateral valleys—the Griidnerthal, the Gaderthal, the Abteithal—the language, Ladin, indicates e Latin race.
The threat to Italy's safety in the Adriatic region is of another kind. It arises from the. vast number of islands. and harbours which there are on the Austrian shore, which provide bases for attacko upon the coast of Italy and lurking places for submarines to prey upon her commerce, whilst between Venice and Taranto Italy has.no harbour suitable for the vessels of war needed for her defence. It would seem, then, tat, if Italy is to be safe hereafter, the limit which Dante assigned to her in this direction when he wrote
till " Quarnaro Che -Italia obiude. e euoi termini bagna "
c4n, snider modern conditions, be no longer regarded as satis- factory; that, to leave the maie portion of the eastern. shore in the hands of any other Power would not be consistent with her suture security. In this imperfect werbi not every good sirinciple can be absolutely carried out; and thus . the demands of a country's safety may impose limits on the applieation of the nrieciple of nationality. Doubtless Italy will gladly recognize the . just claim of the Jugo-Slav State, which is to be, to the isossessiOn of commodioue harbours on the Adriatic; but this is very different from a consent .to the assignment of the whole eastern shore, south of the Quarearo, and its islands, to any 'other Power. Tf any still ask, " What has Italy done In the War? " they must surely overlook the fact that she not only has held, and is holding, over sin hundred thousand enemy troops "(who would otherwise be acting, against the rest of the Allies), put is occupying several hundred square miles of enemy territory, `and this in the face of appalling difficulties, and that she was the ehief agent in the salvation of the Serbian Army.
Some mouths ago an able correspondent pointed out in the 'Spectator the limitation of -the application of the principle of 'nationality made imperative by the position of Cyprus. What be wrote seems to me thoroughly applicable, mutatis mutandis, to the eases of the northern part of South Tirol and the eastern ',shore of the Adriatic, and also to another country nearer home richly supplied with harbours which, if the country were under a Government other than that of the United Kingdom, might prove of great danger to the Empire.—I am, Sir, -d-o.,
H. S. Vsascuoins. LIf our correspondent had been an possession of a- file of the
Spectator he would have seen that we have again and again: -insisted that the Trontino must fall to Italy; and we agree that., though the will of the local majority must as far as possible prevail, the drawing of boundaries cannot be conducted on pedantic principles. The interesting Ladin-speaking mountaineers should certainly go b Italy. They speak a language nearer to the true Latin than that of any Earopeaa people.—Ea. Spectator.]
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