of the Italians. (There is not a single Italian
civilian in Tarvis--but no matter.) Meanwhile the French Press noted
that the Italians--presumably not as traders but as benefactors--were
seeing to it that the Austrians did not run short of arms and munitions.
For many months a large area was in a condition of uncertainty and
turmoil, till at last the Peace Conference ordered a plebiscite.

Two zones in Carinthia--"A" to the south-east, with its centre at
Velikovec (Voelkermarkt), and "B" to the north-west, with its centre at
Klagenfurt (Celovec)--were mapped out, and it was agreed that if the
voting in "A," the larger zone, were favourable to Austria, then the
other zone would automatically fall to that country. For several months
before the voting day this area--a region of beautiful and prosperous
valleys watered by the broad Drave and surrounded by magnificent
mountain ranges--for several months this area was the scene of great
activity. German-Austrians and Yugoslavs no longer, as in 1919, attacked
each other with the implements of war, but with pamphlet, broadsheet,
with eloquence and bribery. Austrian and Yugoslav officials took up
their headquarters at various places and saw to it that every voter
should be posted as to the moral and material advantage he would reap by
helping to make the land Austrian or Yugoslav, as the case might be. All
those were entitled to vote who, being twenty years of age in January
1919, had their habitual residence in this area; or, if not born in the
district, had belonged to it or had their habitual residence there from,
at least, January 1, 1912. The larger zone "A" was left under Yugoslav
administration, while zone "B" was under the Austrian authorities; and
the Inter-Allied officials exercised a very close supervision in order,
for example, to protect the partisans of either side from undue
repression at the hands of their opponents. Neither the Austrians nor
the Yugoslavs lost any opportunities for saying in public that the
Inter-Allied Commissions were honestly making every effort to be
impartial. It was, however, unfortunate that Italy should have sent as
her chief representative Prince Livio Borghese, who may have been as
impartial as his colleagues, but whose reputation, whether merited or
otherwise, could scarcely commend itself to the Yugoslavs. They believed
that his activities in Buda-Pest, under the Bol[vs]evik regime, and
afterwards in Vienna, had been very hostile to