The South Tyrol Accord
The agreement freely reached by direct negotiation between Italy and Austria over the South Tyrol is the best fruit the Paris Con- ference has yielded so far—if. indeed' it is just to attribute it to the conference at all, seeing that the two States concerned reached accord by direct negotiation, and all that is left for the conference is to endorse and congratulate. The Southern Tyrol, a purely Austrian province, was most unjustly transferred from a defeated Austria to a victorious Italy in 1919, and it was generally and con- fidently expected that this time wrong would be righted by the restoration of the South Tyrol to the State to which by tradition, language and culture it properly belongs. The Big Four, however, for reasons which have never been adequately stated anywhere, rejected the solution, the best Mr. Bevin could say, when on his defence in the House of Commons, being that certain " frontier adjustments " in Austria's favour might be considered. Actually, of course, the determining factors should be the welfare and the wishes of the inhabitants of the Southern Tyrol themselves, who have been ruthlessly Italianised during twenty odd years of Fascist domination. The new agreement, if it does not give the Tyrolese what they most want, reversion to Austrian sovereignty, gives them almost everything else. The province will be autonomous, German will be recognised as an official language equally with Italian, there will be Austrian officials and Austrian schools, the population deported by Mussolini will be encouraged to return, and customs barriers between the South Tyrol and Austria will be largely removed. This is all excellent ; the two countries concerned have set the Peace Conference an admirable and much-needed example.
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