Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1945-12-26
MORE ON THE TRIESTE PROBLEM


Trieste remains one of the most
ticklish postwar problems. In my
opinion, the best statement on it is
the pamphlet entitled "Trieste" by
A. j. p. Taylor, Fellow of Magda-
len College, Oxford, and published
N the U. S. by the United Commit
lee of SOuth-Slavic Americans (465
Lexington Ave-, New York II. N.
", which still has about 1000 CO.
)ies for free distribution.
Here is a short piece from the
Sept. FL Free Europe LOndOn):
The Council of Foreign Minister.
heard the views of the Yugo-
slaV and Italian representatives or
the question of the alo-Yugoslav
frontier. It is on the cards that NJ
Edward Kardelj, the Yugoslav Vice
Premier and a Slovene, asked for a
frontier along the river Socha
(Isonzo), including the town of
Trst (Trieste). Yugoslavia claims
an area approximately $500 SCARE
miles, in which roughly $50, 900
Slovenes and Croats and 27O,O 900
Italians live.
The old Italo-Yugoslav frontier
was fixed at Rapallo on Nov. 20,
1920, amended in favor of Italy by
the Rome Treaty of Jan. 27, 1924.
Yugoslavia was then forced to agree
to the incorporation Of Rjeka
(Fiume) in Italy, although under
the Rapallo Treaty it was to have
been a Free City.
Signor Alcide de Casper, Italian
Foreign Minister and present pre-
mier of Italy is not in a posi-
ton today to receive the strategic
appeals successfully used by the
Sonninos and Orlandos after the
last wal to override the interests OF
the Yugoslav people. The Italians
are now resorting to photographic
arguments to which they give a pc
culiar twist. Italians are to be
found mainly in Trst and in the
smaller towns of the Western lit
toral of Istria as far as Pull (Pola).
Italy wants these towns to remain
within her frontier, but as these de-
ponds for food on the surrounding
countryside, they also claim a num-
Der Of neighboring villages al
thO1JOh tho nNrIIIofiNo 4hD~o 80 CJ1
Vene or, as in Istria, Croat. Italy is
prepared to accept as a frontier the
line suggested by President Wilson
on April IA, 1919, which the Italian
Prime Minister Orlando then re-
jected. The Wilson Line" however
was far from just and to suggest it
today would be to flout the rights
of the Yugoslavs. To give Yugo-
SlaVia the Italian ethnic islands
along the coSt-Which are the re-
suit of Venetian colonisation-may
cause some hardship, which how
ever could be considerably reduced
by an exchange of population. But
to give them to Italy would cause
greater hardship still to greater
numbers.
Let us not forget that the Yugo-
slavs have been our Allies and have
made heavy sacrifices in the war:
while the Italians fought the Allies
and came over late in the day only
when they saw that they had
backed the loser.
Italy does not need Trieste as a
port. She has enough Adriatic ports
and Venice will certainly not suffer
II Trieste goes to Yugoslavia.
whereas the minor Yugoslav ports
like Sibenik, Split and Dubrovnik,
r of little use for they have no
convenient connections with the
hinterland beyond the Dinaric
Alps. Trieste and Rjeka, however.
have good rail links with Yugo-
slavia's richest provinces, notably
Slovenia and Croatia. Before the
First World War Trieste and Rieka
cleared annually 10,20O, 900 tons of
goods. When these two ports were
in Italian hands the volume fell to