ITALY IN THE ADRIATIC.
THE recent change in the Italian Government represents many things which those really acquainted with Italian feeling have been foretelling for the past five years as inevitable unless our own attitude to Italy became something very different from what it has been. It would be vain and bitter work now to retrace these past years—to recall and dwell on all the many instances in which Italian rights and interests have been unfairly and most unwisely sacrificed to Anglo-American or Anglo-French policy, under the veil of " justice " to a smaller Power which was often no more than a convenient screen. To all who are even a little behind the scenes, these things are known—what we have now to face is the result. Italy, in her recent Ministerial changes, may be said to have made us a polite bow—" you have not found me worth sustaining" she seems to say—" very well." And without the smallest touch of bombast, yet quite definitely, she lots us know that we have forced her now to a reconsideration of her position.
Until the Conference of Spa has passed we cannot know the precise results of this "reconsideration," but precisely became something may still be saved, it concerns us intimately to 'realise the true state of Italian feeling at this moment. And this feeling can best be studied not in the old but in the new Italy—that is to say, on the eastern shores of the Adriatic, where the pains of war have been most felt, where the memory of foreign rule is still a thing of yesterday, and that same spirit is alive that made the Italian Riaorgimento sixty years ago.
They are few in number, these Italians of the new Italy, yet more perhaps than any other factor their influence may be held responsible for that reaction in public sentiment which has overthrown the Nitti Ministry, and, willy-nilly, will compel any future Ministry to trace a stronger course. Let us avoid tho error, then, of measuring their importance by their numbers, and seek rather to discover what they represent as a dynamic force.
First and foremost it should be realised that they have with them to a very great extent the sympathies of the Italian Navy. This does not mean that the Navy, or even that section of it presently stationed in the Adriatic, is permitting itself anything so incorrect as a definite political attitude, still less that it is only awaiting a word from Signor D'Annunzio to spring into active rebellion, as has been most falsely stated. The present writer has been recently in daily contact with Italian naval officers for the space of nearly a month, and can testify to their general attitude being one of much moderation on all points. But their sympathies with the Dalmatian cause are general because their experience has been general. The Navy alone knows what it meant to Italy in the recent war to have the well nigh impregnable Dalmatian coast and archipelago arrayed against the defenceless Italian shores which stretch, a sandy flat without one naval harbour, from Venice to Brindisi. And similarly through the months of occupation, naval officers, more than civilians at a distance, have had that close contact with the indigenous population, alike Italian and Slav, which best permits a vivid judgment of the political and moral factors in the situation. It is through this unity of experience, then, not through any improper political combination, that so large a part of the Italian Navy has conceived the sympathies above noted, and for those who believe that "a pinch of experience is worth a peck of theory" this unity of feeling must hold much interest.
But it is well to note that in addition to the Navy, with the exception of the socialists and that particular section of opinion which still goes with the Corriere della Sera and the Secolo, it is not too much to say that nearly all Italians are now demanding the application of the Treaty of London. Many Liberals and Radicals who once were willing to discuss an alternative settlement are no longer so disposed because, in the many proposals which have been put forward, they consider all advantages have always been upon the other side. Briefly, they find that Italy is being urged not to the conduct of a fair exchange, but to the sacrifice of something for nothing, and mindful of her hall-million dead and her heavily burdened finances, many liberal consciences reject such a settlement as explicitly as any Nationalist. Whether as adherents, then, from the outstart, or converts on these lines of faute de mieux, a very large number of Italians are now standing firmly behind the Treaty of London, and it is said, rightly or wrongly, that Signor Giolitti has only been returned to power through his promise of satisfying this demand. That anything as definite as a promise has been given seems very doubtful, but Signor Giolitti would not be himself if he did not show full regard for a current of opinion the strength of which he fully realises.
We stand then at this point, that the next few months will almost certainly see the application of the Adriatic section of our original treaty with Italy, and all that reniains to us in the process of honouring our signature is the option of bringing to the business such good or bad will as may largely cancel or confirm the too vivid sense of injustice from which most Italians are at present suffering. Let us understand the position clearly. There is no longer, in any quarter, any tendency to appeal deliberately or consciously for our good opinion. All that made the somewhat feverish atmosphere of a year ago with its mixture of hurt indignation and violent reaction is something quite outlived—Italy is considerably older than a year ago. But in her bland determination now to proceed quietly to facts, and let facts bring to all such illumination as they may, there is something so akin to British policy that few Britons really understanding her present attitude could fail to feel a sympathetic thrill of respect and confidence. Paradoxically enough, in the hour that she ceases to appeal, Italy in fact appeals very forcibly indeed.
And it is in the course of a visit to the eastern Adriatic, and especially to Dalmatia, that all this has a first chance of being felt. For there is no doubt that for many the deep realities involved in the Dalmatian claim have been quite obscured during the past four years by the trivial arguments too often used in its support. There are strong arguments, both material and moral, for the Italian occupation of Dalmatia, but almost without exception Italian journalists and politicians have managed to say the wrong things and have unsaid the right. They have vitiated the material position by claiming for it a national character which, on the ordinary basis of statistics, could not be sustained*—they have prejudiced the moral by pouring forth wrath upon their opponents even as they have assured us that Italian domination would mean only justice and liberty for all.
But even as England is not represented by the follies of her extremer spirits in Press or Parliament, but by the quiet tenacity, patience and moderation of her men of deeds, so is it true that precisely the same qualities are day by day unravelling the knot of Italy's difficulties in the eastern Adriatic. In Admiral Millo Dalmatia has found a great Governor—as great, perhaps, as the greatest of those who at different times have won for Britain authority and esteem abroad. In eighteen months of administration he has done more for the betterment of his province then Austria did in the last half-century, and the humble population of mixed races as it uses the bridge which saves hours of walking—or draws the water for the first time brought to its village—or gratefully accepts the free medical assistance, is beginning to utter its appreciation of these benefits with no uncertain voice, and amidst many of these simple folk the Governor is already spoken of as "our father." Nationality ? These people of the country districts —the great mass of the population—are far too primitive to
• The degree in which Dalmatia can claim if not an Italian majority, yet an Indisputable Italian superiority—the rights, in short, of a real aristocracy, if not those of democracy—would require a separate article to set forth, as also the many moderate ideas pertaining amongst Dalmatians of all parties—Slays as well as Italians—which might serve as a lnal adjustment better than any yet proposed.
have any sense of nationality as yet, but if some day they proudly call themselves "Italian," it will not be because Roman ruins and Venetian palaces testify everywhere to the Italian culture of the past., but because the wisdom of living Italians has allowed them to know, that simple kindliness, that quick humanity, which, above and beyond all his giftedness, is the essential note of the best Italian of all times.
These are the things one realises as one motors swiftly through Dalmatia—that despite all the forces they have had against them, the Italians in this new province are already loved. One sees it in the fearlessness of the children as they crowd round the car at every stoppage—in the smiles of the women— in the willing service of the men. In the village of Kievo, near to the Bosnian frontier and almost at the foot of the Dinaric Alps, the people have so gathered round the young Captain who for eighteen months has been making their lives more civilised and bearable that they have declared they too will migrate in a body "if the Italians go."* But the Italians are not going, and even as these men of deeds found their moral rights on kindliness and service rendered—on a culture of the present, not a culture of the past—so is it interesting to see the same spirit of reality speaking through their conception of the material situation.
We have had too much battling with words in the past five years, and certain terms like " democracy " and " imperialism " have been so over-used and so mis-used, that it is scarcely possible to use either to-day without rousing violent passions. Yet just as it is certain that " democracy " is not a synonym for all godliness, so is it certain that " imperialism " does not stand for all vileness, and a profound error of Italian Nationalist/ has undoubtedly been their refusal to admit the term imperialism in connexion with any Italian claim, thus at once complicating their present position and limiting their future. Now the "men of deeds" with whom one meets in the Adriatic see this quite clearly, and in talking with them one breathes afresh. They take their stand not upon strained statistics, but upon strategic necessity and the sanctity of treaties. They have no. use for insincere language and would be glad to see it aban- doned. But they point out one thing in defence of their Nationalist brethren, journalistic and political, which is per- fectly true and which all honest Britons should admit at once. That it has been profoundly offensive to Italians of every party to hear Italy constantly dubbed imperialist, in a tone of con- demnation, by Powers far more imperialist than herself. Let us be careful to admit always this offence of our own in the same breath as we regret the disingenuousness of Italian Nationalism, and much bad blood may be avoided.
And the love of truth which carries us thus far must carry us also further. If Italy as a Great Power, and a Power destined certainly to become much greater, cannot avoid some share in that tutelage of lees developed races which is, of course, imperialism, it is also a fact that her imperialism to-day is much more limited, much more purely defensive, and much more human in character than that of any other Great Power, and it is quite likely, given the Italian temperament, that it will always remain within these limits.- And this is probably what the simple Italian feels when he exclaims hotly, as he often does, "We are not impericaiet " He is not uttering a mere party cry, lila!, more sophisticated persons, but something deeper. And this truth—mightier than mere logic—has interest for the world to-day.
We talk often of what Italy has given us in the past, but in visiting the eastern Adriatic at this moment the visitor is more inclined to ponder on what she is giving to the present, and may give to the future—a union of practical grasp with vivid kindliness which is probably the best and only possible immediate incarnation for that blending of conservatism and radicalism, or materialism and idealism, for which all the political world is combating so bitterly to-day. We ourselves have had some success as colonisers and administrators through our strong sense of justice, but we live largely apart from the peoples whom we rule because we have not, as a race; in any salient measure the quality of sympathy. Instead, in Italians, sympathy is the leading quality. And is this perhaps the key to a new imperialism ? An imperialism which will not exclude fraternity,
• Similar evidence, just as strong, for the popularity of the Italian rule was also o2ered on the other frontier—at Obrovazzo, on the borders of Croatia. Here the Mayor of a little village close by told the present writer that in his village there were only two inhabitants who did not wish the Italian regime to be permanent. Yet this is a village wholly Slay. t In Dalmatia and the Tipper Adige this defensive character finds full ex- pression in the popular phrase, "Dobbiamo tenets is ports C' We must guard the doors of our house"). which will not arouse hostility, and still in the world of to- morrow will allow expression for that differing scale of values those differing degrees in evolution which are an undeniable reality in the world in which we dwell ? One cannot tell, but these are all thoughts which must pass through the mind of the honest observer as he or she weighs the special character of Italian administration at this moment in Zara or Zebenice, Obrovazzo, Knin or Kievo. Italy is a young nation, but an old race. As a young nation she has not yet found complete equilibrium in her political life, and her political expression more often betrays than expresses her. But her wisdom and her maturity appear in the sympathies she never fails to win in action. And deeds are more potent than words. From Rome there may issue often a somewhat chaotic utterance, but it is powerless to depress any who have seen the little ragged children of Kievo crowding round their adored Capitano or heard the tone in which others of maturer years will allude to their much slandered, oft sore beset Governor as "our father?'
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