New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-30
The Adriatic Slav
Some Criticisms Answered by a.
Director Of South Slavic Cou,.a

To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: ! am not very keen 70 answer q, 49,,
Gle such as the one written by A.
which was published in the issue O. -,
paper OF the 26.h inst, under N. 49,,
"Adriatic Slav.' A person who hide, n.
her name and qualifications, and at IN. az.
time denounces martyred peora. VII,
has strenuously ondeavo-ed 10 libera.. i...,
from a tyranncal government such a, d.
tria is, deserves no attention. Ba. a,
count of the Importance OF the ouest.o,,-,
consideration for your readers rec-...
you to publish the following:
| admit that statistics are A verv .l..,
thing, but il is still more elastic "a 49,.
that on the shores Of the Adriatic A. 80
does not exist which the statistics saw FL.
there and TO number more than Mill
souls, and TO assert that said peopl. VIA.
settled there by Austria during III. las, o.
dccenniums.
In the year 1888 all the communes IN n,
malta were in the hands OF Italian admin.
traitors, but the statistics for that year d.
in Dalmatia 100000 Serbo-C roatians .s.,...
! 10000 Italians. In the year 1853 NI.,.
Tommaseo, great Italian author Ard =.
triot, wrote that there were IN Dalmas,. :.
the most 10000 Italians ard 100000 sI,.,
The same author wrote in 1855: sDaIr,..
has preserved the Slav character bet.., d..
Italy her Italian" IN the sixth dec,,,s-
Of the nineteenth century. the Ttallns,.c,
party in Dslmatia would never call t,.,
italian, but Autonomous and in Ia v,.,,.
ganda and agitation among the masses I, ii.
ways used the Serbo-Croatian Language. 7,
1895 the leader OF the Italian party IN BAL.
malta, DR.. Ziiotto, OF lara, declared IN Ii.
Dalmatian Diet: How could courl. st
thousand Of US Italians, scattered aroma
without territorial continuity among rsu,.
lation Of million Slavs, even think a. d..
union with italy," Tn. great Italian yas.
zini about the middle Of the nineteenth cen.
fury wrote: From Fiume, along the Adn.
attic, to Bojana, on the border OF Albania, ".
find a zone which is predominantly Slavic,
with scattered remnants Of our colonies
Napoleon | created the kingdom Of Italy,
He did not add to Italy either Gorilla, or
Trieste, or Istria, or Dalmatia, bu, GU. Of
these lands created the kingdom O., nlvri.
and reinstated the national Slavic laneras,
in the schools and administrative orces
And this took place before Austria came int
possession Of the Adriatic rhores!
The Serbo- Croatian Literature
Beginning from the fourteenth century. q
strong literary life in the Serbo-Croa.ian
language was being developed in Ragusa
Spalato and on the islands Of Curzola and
Lesina. If there were TO Slavs there how
could such fact be explained? The idea
of panSlavism first appeared in Dalmatis in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In
the fifteenth century Zoranch, an authOrand
a native Of cara, Dalmatia, appeals 10 his
readers TO preserve their old Slavic Ian.
guage, which is Just as beautiful as the
Italian" When Pope Alexander III, in III,
visited cara, he was visited by the people,
which, as an old chronicle narrates sang
songs in their Slavic language Already IN
the fifteenth century, Croatian king was
crowned in cara, and long before then sew.
eral Croatian kings were crowned in Stoim
the seat of the Croatan ruler was in Sebe-
nco, while the seat of the free Crostian
Roman Catholic Church was in Mn, not Tar
from Zara. Since then, and until the present
Biograd near Cara. In the tenth century
time, the services in the Roman Catholic
churches on the Adriatic shores are being
conducted in the old Slavic language. In the
twelfth century, in Western Istria, all off,
cal acts dealing with the partition Of lands
between peasants and landlords were COM
posed in the Slavic language.
Where was Austria at that time! She did
not even exist; much less could she settle
Slavs on the Adriatic shores.
We do not intend to reproach the Italians
for the fact that the Austrian government
created Italian schools on the littoral, trying
in that way to artifcially create Italians
with Austrian sentiments for the purpose
of obtaining there sufficient number OF
functionaries needed for the ad-
of the Italian provinces Aus
tria at that time held. After the loss OF
venetia and Lombardy Austria did not want
these functionaries any longer, and conse.
quently they died out, being an artificial
creation. having no root nor sympathy
among the population of the coast.
So much | wish TO say in regard 70 the
absurdity of A. A. BIS thesis. As regards a
pebiscite, desire to state this: Let all those
Italians who before the war lived on the
eastern shores Of the Adriatic and were born
there come back and vote, and add TO that
the number of those who persisted in the war,
allowing the same treatment 70 be accorded
to the Slavs of those lands, and even eyclud-
ing ali those Slavs who emigrated into
those lands during the last generation, and
we shall still be willing 20 have a plebiseite
decide, as We are convinced that Do would
prove the Slavic character Of those lands
Let Italians clearly ard without evasion say
the same. NJ MAKJANOFlC,
Director of the South Slavic National
Council.
Washington, ID. c., June 81, 1911