The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

against a foreign yoke, and partly they have succeeded in shaking it off. The history of the free Serbo-Croatian Republic of (Ragusa)Dubrovnik is not only a bright page of their political liberty but also a glorious record of Serbo-Croatian achievements in literature, science, and civilisation. Napoleon, when creating the kingdom of United Italy, did not think for one moment of burdening her with alien provinces, but taking into account the character of their population, united all these Adriatic provinces in the kingdom of Illyria, with the capital at Ljubljana (Laibach).

In modern Europe, where public opinion plays an important part in the policy of the States, the militarists of every country are walking hand in hand with stealthily creeping commercialism. In the Italy of later days, as in Germany forty years ago, in a comparatively short time commercialism as an entirely new social class has sprung up, and with it an entirely new public opinion. The combination of military and commercial interests in Italy, as was the case with Germany, will surely weave the web of Italian destiny, and lead to most dangerous complications. The closer study of the Italian claims on the Adriatic will convince us at once that those claims, though announced in the name of military efficiency and strategic frontiers, are calculated to serve the interests of Italian commercialism, and to secure for Italy

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