The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-04-25
ITALY WANTS THE CONTROL! OF ALL!
 ADRIATIC SEA

1 New York, April 26. Special Cor
 respondence.) )-The long deadlock | of the peace conference over the
 conflicting claims of Italy and Jugo- Slovakta is merely part of ItaIy's age-long struggle for control of the Adriatic Sea, according to the view l of Lothrop Stoddard, the eminent student of international relations. In his sketch of the history of the Adri- | atic problem, called 'Adria the l Troubled Sea-" which he contributes to the May Century, he quotes the Italian historian Guglielmo Ferrero l as saying that Italy must annex thS entire east coast of the Adriatic and | inm ediately, or-'within fifty wears l every memory of Italy will have fad ed from those lands which since the days of Augustus have always been
 Latin. It would be like unmaking l the history of Italy" MT. Stoddard writes of the deveI- 1 opment of the Adriatic problem in 1 part as follows: '"The Congress of l Vienna assigned Venice itself and all Its great Adriatic heritage, save 1 the Ionian Isles, to the Hapsburg Empire. Furthermore, those DOT tions of the Adriatic coast not Aus l trian outright belonged to the PapaI States or to the Kingdom of Naples, both Nfeless political entities, virtu- ally Austrian protectorates.
 But the race which had twice made the Adriatic it's lake was al- ready girding it's Ioins for battle . It's war-cray was ''Fuori i Tedeschi!'
 (Out with the Germans!) and it's
 purview embraced not merely the Italian peninsula. but also those
 Tfa1f S
 ficantly termed Italia Irredenta,
 'Unredeemed Italy" In 1866 the young Italian Kingdom boldly cha1- 1 lenged Austria's Adriatic supremacy.
 The ninteeth century was, the Era of NationaHties.' The breath of this new spirit early touched the SlaY l peoples and at length 1t passed 1 down the Adriatic, as gentle at first l as a summer breeze, but presently l blowing with the elemental fury of 1 the bora. The Italians took fright 1 at once and with good reason. In 1 Istria they then held racia1Iy the en- tire coast and comprised fully half | the total population; but in DaImatia l they numbered barely ten per cent, concentrated in the towns and scat 1 tered in the thinnest of fringes along the isles and head1ands a broken string of Italian beads upon 8 solid l SIav mantle; or, to use the homelier Slayonic saw, the buttons on' the SIav coat. The Government was Austrian, and Vienna we'll knew the secret hopes of Italiansim. Accord ingly Vienna allowed and encouraged Slavism to work it's will. q
 Ut is easy to realize the despair | ing rage which this losing death struggle arouses in Italian hearts. .. It was this which did so much to 1 determine Italy's decision to enter the late war. It accounts for the re- 1 jection of Austria's proposed cultur- 1 al guaranties to her Italian subjects, l made to the Italian Government dur ing the final negotiations of April, 1 1915. Italy knew that no cultural l guaranties could save the situation, that east Adriattc Italianism would die of cultural liberty if the Slavs had it, too.
 Times wheel has turned, and 1t is again the Latin's hour. By her
 bargain with the western powers Italy is promised Adriatic mastery. Triest, the eastern islands, much of Dalmatia, peerless Avlona-aIl is to l be hers. It is so nominated in the 1 bond. The keys of the Adriatic will 1 lie in Italy's grasp. For how long? 1 The Teuton's Adriatic foothoId Is gone but the Teuton race remains, a huge loom upon the northern sky the more dangerous for compression, awaiting a, distant hour. And the | Slav! Thrilling with the intoxication of race-reunion, the Slav cries out in fury against the hindering Italian, | the barrier in the pathway of his | hopes, the new Austria shutting him away from the open seas. The hint erIands cry for their Httorals, and | their cry will not be stilled How | long can even & victorious Italy hold the east coast against SIav tide and Teuton Drang? And how can Italy | let go % Il