Evening star., 1926-02-09
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLIR.

This Is he last class in French-I
beg Of yG to be very attentive
His Snple words overwhelmed
me. This then, was the notice they
had postA at the mayors office. Oh,
the scousarels! My last lesson in
French"
From Ialian sources equally re-
liable and Intimately informed comes
| a different version Of the situation.
1.-The PanEerman Nationalist League
are at the bottom of all the trouble"
said an lillian. There is the An
dreas Hofe League. the Schulverein
and the SUdnOrkothe three leagues
supported b@ all Germany though
located in South Germany and in
Tyrol. The Bavarians are especially
active. 1t IS part of the agitation
for the urtoa Of Austria and Ger
many. At first, the agitation was
in the south only. but gradually 1t
spread to the Prussian press. Italy
demonstrated against the constant
few Germans Of Italian South Tyrol,
but the Gemnan government did
nothing about It.
LAS long as the talk was unofficial,
Italy remained quiet. but when DR..
Helder, the resident Of Bavaria,
made his speech in the Bavarian
parliament. it became offictal-even
though only Bavarian. on it's face.
What foolisfnses to say the italian
government forces the Tyrolese to
say their prayers in Italian, instead
Of German, when everybody knows
that all Catholic services are In Latin
and always have been!
"As for 1taly's abusing the German
1"yrnlQSQ nf
Of the families of Austrians living
in South Tyrpl!
Ever since tho war. we have been
paying pensions to those families of
our former enernle les, just as we do to
our own veterans. And Italian Tv.
rol has not sui hered financial hard.
ship as has Austria and Germany
since the war, for even when the
Austrian kronen was worth only one
, or two cents In Italian money. our
Fascist government redeemed all that
was held by our Tyrolese at 60 cents.
"Of course. we want all Italian ctti.
zens to learn Italian, but there is no
compulsion about it, except that the
public schools, which ara rInnortad
by taxing all Italy. and whose s,Innort
comes only a tenth from the Tyrolese
themselves, must teach only italian.
Why should italy tax all the people tn
teach a foreign Anguage In her public
schools? Does shy other country do
so?
why should eermany fear the Of.
feet of teaching Italian to the 1870 900
Gernan-speakms citizens who have
opted to be It1lian. when at least
10000 of then were born Italiansf
That is a very small number, com.
pared with tie Germans in Czecho-
slovakia, whte there are 5000, 900
Germans IN Ia population of only
7,0O0, 900 yet Szechoslovakia forces all
| to speak CzeEl. Italy has $4,000. 900
In Italy and 100000 Italians in
other countrie,
you say tfat some Of our papers
are ultra be.liserent. You should not
take the Tevee and Ell 'Impero too
seriously. Thy each have a circula-
tfon OF only aaout $1,000 and are ex-
tremists.
Those radien in politics want to
tear down everthing-aH great mon
| uments of tfA past-and build all
over again wiH lew machinery. We
call them Cubits-like the Cubists in
art, you know 1aly Is not belliger-
ent. out she \ frong and forward
looking since her Risogomento. That
| word has q dk4ent meaning from
what It did so VARS ago. Then II
meant nghting III defense against q
foreign enemy. Today. 1t is almost
the same as Ier4issance or rather
rejuvenation. EsT is forward look
ing. toward q gref development, but
not BY agrees by That talk about
forcing France TO 1--WE up some of her
African colonies q Italy Is nonsense.
No official has snasuoh an idea; it Is
| the foolish talk orr of the ultra-gad.
tcal papers mout1Qod."
sOaazasaA asaA assss =. osshaA