self Sarini. It must have caused
him many sleepless nights.... Counting Su[vs]ak with Rieka as one town,
the total population in the autumn of 1918 was about 51 per cent.
Yugoslav, 39 per cent. Italian and 10 per cent. Magyar. These Magyars,
by the way, seem not to have been noticed by Mr. Beaumont. There were
still a good number of them in the town. "Whilst Italy might have
consented," says Mr. Beaumont, "to a compromise with Hungary, had that
State continued to exist as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she
certainly never contemplated handing over"--["handing over" is rather
humorous]--"Fiume and its exclusively Italian population to the
Jugo-Slavs." Underneath Mr. Beaumont's dispatch there is printed a
semi-official statement, sent by Reuter, from Rome. "Yesterday
afternoon," it says, "our troops occupied Fiume. The occupation, which
was made for reasons of public order, was decided upon in view not only
of the urgent and legitimate demands of the Italian citizens of Fiume,
but also of the insistent appeals of eminent foreigners...."

THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES

"Italy's reward," says Mr. Beaumont, "must be commensurate with her
sacrifices, and this is the attitude assumed here. It is quite apart
from the mere question as to whether the Jugo-Slavs are in a majority in
certain districts or not. Those districts form a part of old Italian
territory, of Italian lands once peopled and occupied by the Italian
race and into which, with Austria's encouragement, Slav populations have
filtered." [I should love to know what are Mr. Beaumont's sources.] "The
question must not be left to local ambition and antipathies. It must be
decided authoritatively and quickly in strong counsel to the Jugo-Slav
leaders." ... Let us leave Rieka and see how the Italians decided
authoritatively and quickly on the island of Cres (Cherso). It is a
large but not thickly populated island; having 8162 inhabitants for 336
square kilometres. The Yugoslavs, according to the census of 1910,
number 5714 or 71.3 per cent., while the Italian-speaking population
amounts to 2296 or 28 per cent. About the middle of November the Italian
authorities placed in the village of Martin[vs]['c]ica, which is in the
south-western part of the island, 17 soldiers, 3 carabinieri and a
lieutenant. Let me say at once that I have never been to Cres, all my
knowledge of this case comes from a Franciscan monk who lives there, the
Rev. Ambrose Vlahov, Profe