The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-18
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BURE AU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
Washington. D. C
THE ADRIATIC DANGER POINT.
Washington. D. C

THE ADRIATIC DANGER POINT.
Washington, Jan. 15.-Of ever
growing seriousness among the prob
lens to be settled at the peace table
is the disposition of the land border
ing the Adriatic sea.
Since the collapse of Austria, Italy
has occupied most of this lanc, there
by arousing the wrath of the YugO-
Slavs, and particularly that of Ser
bia, which country announces that 1t is
also a candidate for the prizes to be
awarded along the Adriatic coast line.
So strong is the feeling on this ques-
ton that Serbia, weak from hunger
and the terrible invasions of the en-
envy, has nevertheless declared that it
will fight again, and keep on fighting.
if Italy is permitted to maintain her
present status on the Adriatic.
The two provinces which are the
basis of this agitation are known as
Kustenland and Dalmatia. The occu-
patton of the Austrian province OF
Trentino by Italy is not contested, be-
| cause Trentino contains a large 1tal-
ian population and is of no great eco
| nomic value, for it has no outlet to
the sea. Its chief value to Italy is the
| strategic one of mountain barricade
against Austria.
| In Kustenland and Dalmat tia, how
ever, both of which possess consider
/ able seacoast and therefore econom-
| ically important, the situation is COM
plicated by the fact that the Yugo-
| Slavs greatly outnumber the Italians.
| If you happen to have a map of Eu-
rope, you will see that Kustenland is
I that small peninsula projecting into
| the Adriatic just east of the italian
| frontier, and containing the impor-
important Austrian seaport of Trieste.
| Dalmatia occupies a long and narrow
| strip of land on the eastern coast
| it's fringe of small islands,
from Kustenland to Montene-
gro. In the days when the Roman
empire flourished, these provinces be-
were separated from it centuries ago,
Italy still bitterly resents their loss.
! In recent years, however, another
| intruder has gained tremendously in
numbers, if not in power, along the
shores of the Adriatic-the Slav. The
history of each province in this region
| is the history of the gradual rise of
| the Slav. Take Kustenland, for ex-
ample. The emigration of Slavs to
Kustenland began shortly after the
| downfall of the Roman empire. They
established themselves in the noun
! tain Businesses of the interior, leaving
| the Latin population to the narrow
coastal lands and to the port towns.
During the Middle Ages the Is
train peninsula-as the lower part
| of kuStenland is called-was divided
| between Austria and the city of Venice.
Austria receiving the most important
half containing the city of Trieste.
Thus Trieste has been Austrian since
the fourteenth century. In 1914 the
congress of Vienna awarded the en-
tire peninsula to Austria. Under Aus
| tr1an rule the italian population has
| been gradually dwindling, while the
Slavs have multiplied until today they
represent sc per cent of the entire
| population.
| Tn noJ
dominant. Its coast is a huge noun
tain waA that rises abruptly from the
sea, with scattering of tiny islands.
| This wall has tended to cut off the
Dalmatian interior from the Adriatic,
so that it appears to have held little
| charm for the italian. At any rate,
the Slav population has increased by
leaps and bounds ever since the ninth
century, while the Italians have stead
| lily dwfndled until now they constitute
only 3 per cent of the population.
I During the Middle Ages the Vene-
tan republic obtained great influence
over Dalmatia and succeeded in fore
ing its culture upon the SIavs, aItho
| 1t failed to make them adopt the ItaI-
/ ian language. Then, in 1914, Dalma-
tia was awarded to Austria by the
congress of Vienna, and the Slavs pro-
ceeded to divest themselves of Italian
culture as of a cloak.
The nineteenth century is famous as
the aWakener of race consciousne ss
among all the peoples of Europe, and
the Slavs proved no exception. They
began to organize. to take part in the
political life of the nations which ruled
them, and they began to dream of
united southern Slav state-a Yugo-
Slavia.
For Kustenland and Dalmatia were
not the only territories TO receive the
11llF1 icrp~r ant, h
middle ages. Croatia Slavonia, an
other. province of the Adriatic re-
cefved its share, and the western Bal
kans. also. But while the Slavs of
the Adriatic provinces accepted Chris
tianity from Rome and adopted the
civiliza ton of western Europe, the
Slavs who settled in Serbia fell under
the influence of Byzantine Constan-
tinople. The difference between the
two Civilizations served to split this
people and make it lose consciousness
of its identity as such.
The first to develop a political state
were the Greats. in the early middle
| ages, but the Magyars of Hungary
soon put an end to it's existence. The
Dalmatian Croats fell under the sway
of the republic of Venice. The Serbs
succeeded in building up a powerful
state in the fourteenth century. guided
by a particularly wise ruler, but upon
his death they became the prey OF
the Turks. Threatened by a similar
. disa ster, the Slavs of Dalmatia sought
, the protection of Austria.
Followed for the Serbs a terrible
period of persecution by the Turks.
: which greatly reduced the population,
. but failed to make it relinquish its
, Orthodox faith. 1t failed, that is. in
all of Serbia except the provinces OF
Bosnia and Herzegovina Here the
5 population embraced the Moha M
medan faith with such enthusiasm and
. fanaticism that it broke all connec-
lions with the rest of the race
With Dalmatia and kustenland In
its possessions, a ce injury later. Austria
conceived the idea of uniting the en-
tire Yugo-Slav race under the rule OF
r the Hapsburgs. The Orthodox Slavs
of Serbia had no intention. however