The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

experience all the difficulties of the new position. It would be a burden which their nervous and easily excitable democracy could not, and would not, meekly endure. The Slavonic menace would become a nightmare for them and would easily deteriorate the normal course of their economic, political, and social development. The inborn love of freedom which enabled the Serbo-Croats to shake off the Turkish yoke of five centuries, and so successfully to resist the German onrush to the East, would certainly enable them to resist Italian dominion. The “‘ Irredenta Slava ” would become the greatest menace to the Italian nation and to the peace of Europe. Italy, for the sake of very doubtful advantages, must strain every nerve to cope with that danger threatening her from the East. What has been a difficulty for the militarists in Germany in Alsace and Lorraine would certainly be much more so for a democratic Italy in the coveted Slavonic provinces.

In order to prove to Italy’s friends in Great Britain that that danger would be no small one, and that my warning against it is no exaggeration, I shall show the principal results which must follow the Italian occupation.

First, Italy would occupy all islands of the Dalmatian Archipelago. The Italian population numbers 1568, and the Serbo-Croats 116,227 souls. How strong the Slav sentiment is among them can best be illustrated by the fact that for

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