nti-chauvinist, pointed out in the _Unita_ of Florence, those
professional gladiators who would lose their job, those agents of the
Italo-German-Levantine capitalism of the Triest Chamber of Commerce who
want to be rid of the competition of Rieka and think that this can only
be obtained by annexation, and also those Italian Nationalists who
believe that the only path to national greatness is by acquiring
territory everywhere. No light has come to them from the East; the same
arguments which are now put forward by such societies as the "Pro
Dalmatia" could be heard in Italy before she possessed herself of
Tripoli. One heard the same talk of strategic necessities; one heard
that nearly all the population was waiting with open arms for the
Italians; one heard that from a business point of view nothing could be
better; one heard that the Italians without Tripoli would be choked out
of the Mediterranean. And what have been the fruits of the conquest of
Tripoli? No economic advantages have been procured, as Prezzolini wrote,
no sociological, no strategic, no diplomatic benefits. A great deal of
money was thrown away, a vast amount of energy was wasted, and thousands
of troops have to be stationed permanently in the wilderness. That
expedition to Tripoli, which was one of the gravest errors of Italian
politics, was preceded by clouds of forged documents, of absurdities, of
partial extracts out of consular reports, of lying correspondence which
succeeded in misleading the Italians.

WHY THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA

"The Italian Government," said the _Morning Post_,[22] "is well
qualified to judge of the interests of its own people." Here the
_Morning Post_ is not speaking of the Italian Government which dealt
with Tripoli, but that which has been dealing with Dalmatia. The reasons
which have been advanced for an Italian or a partly Italian Dalmatia are
geographical, botanical, historical, ethnical, military, naval and
economic. As for the geographical reasons: even in the schools of Italy
they teach that the Italian natural frontier is determined by the point
of division of the waters of the Alps and that this frontier falls at
Porto Re, a few miles to the south of Rieka--everything to the south of
that belonging to the Balkan Peninsula. We may note the gallant
patriotism of an Italian cartographer mentioned by Prezzolini; this
worthy has inscribed a map of Dalmatia down to the Narenta with the
pleasing words: "The new nat