FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  
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
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Italian
 

Tripoli

 

Dalmatia

 
Italians
 
reasons
 
geographical
 

Government

 

Morning

 

economic

 

frontier


Prezzolini
 
strategic
 

interests

 

people

 

DALMATIA

 

absurdities

 

documents

 

partial

 

extracts

 

consular


forged
 

clouds

 

gravest

 
expedition
 

errors

 
politics
 
preceded
 

reports

 

CLAIMED

 

ITALIANS


correspondence

 

succeeded

 
misleading
 
qualified
 

historical

 
Peninsula
 

gallant

 

Balkan

 

belonging

 

patriotism


cartographer

 

pleasing

 
Narenta
 

mentioned

 
worthy
 
inscribed
 

botanical

 

ethnical

 
military
 

partly