dmiral, was an order from Rome. The President explained that this
meant ruin for the people of the town. He asked if he might telegraph to
Rome. "I am Rome!" said the Admiral, or words to that effect. Thereupon
the President and the colleagues who were with him said they would never
come again to see the Admiral "If I want you," said the Admiral, "I
will have you brought by a couple of carabinieri." On the next day red
flags were flying on the arsenal and on the day after the Italian troops
were taken elsewhere, while 10,000 fresh ones came from Italy. And Pola,
in exchange for troops, gave coal. For some time the Italians carried
off two trainloads of it every day. This absence of coal from their own
native country, which rather places them at the mercy of the
coal-producing lands, seems to be more their misfortune than anybody's
fault, yet the Italian party of Rieka added this to their grievances
against France and Great Britain. Those two countries ought, they said,
in very decency, to correct the oversights of Providence; but no very
practical suggestions were put forward.

WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED

According to the Austrian census of 1910 Istria contained 386,740
inhabitants, of whom 218,854 (or 58.5 per cent.) habitually used the
Serbo-Croat language, while 145,552 (or 38.9 per cent.) used Italian.
The Yugoslavs cannot help regarding the Istrian statistics with
suspicion, and believing that here, more than in Dalmatia, they were
made to suffer on account of Austria's alliance with Italy and with the
Vatican: one of the wrongs which Strossmayer fought against was that
Istria had been entrusted to an Italian Dalmatian bishop who could not
speak a word of Slav. This prelate appointed to vacant livings a number
of Italian priests whom the people could not understand; a Slav coming
to confess had to be supplied with an interpreter. As to the statistics
in the commune of Krmed (Carmedo), for example, of the district of Pola,
the census of 1900 gave 257 Croats against three Italians, whereas in
1910 it was stated that 296 inhabitants spoke habitually Italian and six
spoke Croatian. Nevertheless, if one accepts the Austrian figures, the
58.5 per cent. should not be treated as if they did not exist. Perhaps
the Italian officials could find no interpreters to translate their
proclamations and decrees; if the Yugoslavs could not read them that was
a defect in their education. If they were unable to write to the
authorities or