s to be chiefly remarkable on account of its
chrysanthemums, from which an insect-powder is produced; and the number
of changes, no less than twenty, that occurred in the ownership of the
island from the beginning of the Middle Ages down to the Congress of
Vienna. During that period it was sometimes under the Byzantines,
sometimes the Venetians, the Holy Roman Empire, its own autonomous
Government, the Hungarians, the Bosnians, the French, the Russians (one
year, in 1806) and the Austrians. It was not occupied by Italy after the
end of this War, and Baron Sonnino did not ask for it when he was
negotiating, before the War, with Austria.

WHICH THE ITALIANS HAD TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT NOT DURING, THE WAR

The Italian Government put forward the question of the islands for the
first time in April 11, 1915. There had been no previous discussion,
passionate or otherwise, as in the case of the Trentino and Triest. But
now they demanded various Dalmatian islands, the chief of which were
Hvar, Kor[vc]ula and Vis, with a total population (in 1910) of 57,954.
The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador reported (cf. Red Book, concerning April
14, p. 133) that a conversation between Baron Sonnino and Prince Buelow
with respect to these islands had been extremely animated, and that
Sonnino had pointed out that the Navy and the whole country expected of
him that he would alter Italy's unfavourable position on the Adriatic,
where from Venice to Taranto she had not one serviceable harbour, that
is to say serviceable war-harbour. And Sonnino added that he thought
this was an opportune moment in which to rectify that state of things.
On April 28 the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, besides drawing the
Italians' attention to the nationality of the islanders--1.62 per cent.
calling themselves Italian--pointed out that not only would there no
longer be any question of a strategic equilibrium in the Adriatic if
Austria were to lose these islands, but that the adjacent coast would
always be threatened. On May 4, the Ambassador asked whether an
arrangement with Italy would be impossible if the Austrians agreed to
every one of Italy's other conditions, showing thereby what the value of
these islands was in Austrian eyes. When Sonnino did not reply to this
question, the Ambassador understood that Italy's participation in the
War had been determined. But on May 10, the Austrian Government made up
its mind to give up Pelagosa "on account of its proxim