ITALY AND THE YUGO-SLAVS. T HE anxieties of Austria with regard
to her subject races have been immensey increased within the last few weeks by the drawing together of Italy and the Yugo-Slays. Until the present year the racial antipathies between Italians and the Slavonic populations with whom they come into contact on their eastern frontiers and along the coast of Dalmatia constituted an effective element of strength to the Austrian Empire. It is indeed related that shortly after the Italian declaration of war upon Austria in May, 1915, some of the Southern Slays who had not yet been conscripted volun- teered to serve in the Austrian armies against the Italian enemy. The bitter racial feud that has so long existed between Italians and Slays is partly due to the general growth of racial consciousness which has been such a factor all over the world during the last half-century, and partly to the deliberate action of the Austrian Government. In the old days of the glory of the Venetian Republic numerous Italian settlements were established along the eastern side of the Adriatic in spots where the natural advantages of the coast created facilities for a harbour. It was a commercial expansion leading to the creation of what may be called, in comparison with the corresponding expansion of Britain across the Atlantic, a New Italy across the Adriatic Sea. And as long as Italy herself was divided, and living under various forms of foreign or ecclesiastical rule, no grave political question arose as the result of this Italian dispersion ; but when Italy became united in 1870, her sons and daughters across the Adriatic held out their arras asking for union with her.
The Austrian Government promptly realized the danger to themselves in such a movement, and proceeded astutely to counter it by giving encouragement to the Slays as against the Italians. Class interests probably to some extent assisted this policy, for the Italians in the main represent the upper and commercial classes, the Slays the peasantry and the labouring classes. But during the past generation the Slays have been moving upwards in the social scale, and with that progress their racial consciousness has been considerably developed. The favours they received from the Austrian Government have further helped them. It is indeed alleged by the Italians that men of Italian birth who wished for pro- motion in the Austrian Civil Service had to pretend that they were of Slavonic birth. The net result has been that throughout Dalmatia and Croatia a strong Southern Slav movement has been developed directed primarily against the Italian element in the population, and in the second place against the overlordship of the Austrian-Germans.
Obviously when Italy declared war upon Austria it was her policy to try to per,suade the Yugo-Slays to alter the relative position of these two animosities. Indeed, the true policy of Italy was to try to convert the anti-Italian feeling of the Yugo-Slays into a pro-Italian feeling. That the Italian Govern- ment as a Government realized this necessity of the situation there is good reason to believe ; but their hands were tied by the active agitation of the Italian Irredentist party, inspired by the Italian settlers in Dalmatia. The action of these latter was intelligible enough. For years they had suffered under an Austrian tyranny. At last their Motherland had declared w. ar upon Austria, and they thought they saw the day of their liberation approaching. In their minds the idea of liberation was essentially connected with the idea of unity with their Italian Motherland. Nor could they at a moment's notice shake off the bitter feelings that had been generated between themselves and their Slavonic neighbours by a generation of rivalry. Consequently the Italian Irredentists energetically demanded that the Italian Government should insist, as part of the price of her alliance with the Western Powers, on the annexation to Italy of a long stretch of the Dalmatian coast, together with practically all the islands in the Adriatic, the whole of the Istrian Peninsula, and the important harbour of Fiume. To some extent the Italian Government had to yield to this urgent political demand, with the result that the whole Yugo-Slav movement became even more furiously anti- Italian than before.
At last the hard facts of war have compelled the Irre- dentists to modify their demands, and the Italian Government have consequently be nit enabled to adopt a policy which the wiser Italians from the outset saw to be necessary. We heartily congratulate our Italian Ally on this very happy solution of a difficult problem. This modification in Italian policy was approved during the Conference of the Oppressed Nationalities of Austria-Hungary which was held in Rome about a month ago. A report. of the agreement then reached between a number of prominent Italians and a number of prominent Yugo-Slays is published in the New Europe for May. Of necessity the agreement could hardly be precise as to frontier details, though these may ultimately prove to be of critical importance. But it did lay down sound basic principles. It recognized that the interests of the Italians and of the Yugo-Slays as against Austria were the same. To both it is of vital importance to destroy the power of Austria, for neither Italy nor Yugo- Slavia can be secure of a free national life if the Austrian Empire remains intact. The two parties therefore agree that they will settle their differences as far as possible by dividing the territories in dispute on the basis of nationality. This cannot in every case be done, because the two races are intermingled, and therefore the Conference agreed that in every case where a minority is compelled to remain under the rule of another race it shall be "guaranteed the right to its own language, culture, and moral and economic interests."
It may be assumed that this agreement will be—indeed probably already has been—fully accepted by the Italian Government. More recently M. Clemenceau in Paris, in addressing representatives of the Austrian oppressed nation- alities, has given his enthusiastic approval to their general policy. That it will meet with approval in this country may now be taken for certain. But here again conversion ha' come rather late. Just as the Italian Government in the earlier days of the war made the mistake of antagonizing the Yugo-Slays, so the British Government, and the American' too for that matter, up till quite recently appeared to hanker after some kind of agreement with Austria, which must of necessity have negatived for all time the aspirations both of the Yugo-Slays and of the Italians. This pro-Austrian policy is now, we may fairly hope, absolutely dead. We can all see quite clearly that Austria-Hungary is but an outpost of the German Empire. Without Germany the Austro- Hungarian Empire must break in pieces ; with Germany the Austro-Hungarian Empire is an instrument of tyranny over races who, in an oft-quoted phrase, are "rightly struggling to be free." These races represent at least half the population of Austria-Hungary, and if their active assistance can be obtained they will constitute a very important factor in the balance of strength that will determine the issue of the war. Already reports coming from Austria through Switzerland and. Holland indicate that the new orientation of Italian policy is producing a marked effect within the Emperor Karl's dominions. There are stories of disturbances created both by Czechs and by Yugo-Slays. The sittings of the Reichsra.th have been suspended because the Government cannot trust this Assembly, with its large Slav membership. Indeed, the Austrian Government, in an apparent fit of despair, are now taking steps which clearly lead in the direction of a break-up of the Austrian Empire. It is proposing that in order to facilitate the distribution of food the German portion" of Bohemia and Austrian Tirol shall be for this purpose treatA as part of the German Empire. To have advanced to this point brings perilously near the day, long desired by many Austrian-Germans, when all the German areas in Austria will become part of the German Empire. It is almost unneces- sary to add that every movement in this direction must intensify the anti-German feeling of the Slavonic subjecta of the Austrian Empire.
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