a newspaper which
appears in Vienna and which, though since its formation has been
essentially hostile to the Austrians, tells us that after the plebiscite
the Slovenes have only suffered real oppression from their
denationalized compatriots. Difficulties arose with regard to the
closing of Slovene schools, but this was largely due to the fact that
many of the Slovene schoolmasters fled to Yugoslavia.

(_g_) THE ITALIAN FRONTIER

A Yugoslav barrister from Pola had gone to a neighbouring village--this
was in 1920--for the purpose of encouraging the natives, who were all
Southern Slavs. He asked them, in the event of their part of Istria
being allotted to the Italians, not to lose heart but to wait for the
day when justice would come by her own. In the middle of his
exhortations a jovial old farmer approached him and slapped him on the
back. "Cheer up, young man!" he exclaimed. "What is it that you are
afraid of?" ... The Slav population of Istria and Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca,
even as that of Dalmatia, has endured a great many things and is
prepared to endure a great many more. Kindness would have gone a long
way towards disarming them. If the Italians on the eastern Adriatic had
been exponents of the Mazzini spirit rather than--which too often has
been the case--of the direst Nationalist, then the Yugoslavs would have
accepted--mournfully, no doubt, but _faute de mieux_--the frontier from
the river Ar[vs]a in Istria which President Wilson suggested. This would
have been a compromise frontier, by which 400,000 Slovenes and Croats
would fall to Italy and a very much smaller number of Italians would
fall to Yugoslavia. It would have satisfied the great sensible mass of
the Italian people, but unfortunately was rejected by Baron Sonnino and
his myrmidons. Far more was claimed by him, and the succeeding Italian
Governments have had to struggle with the passions he so recklessly
aroused. They have been unable to persuade the country that with the
Ar[vs]a frontier they would be getting by no means a bad bargain. By the
Treaty of Rapallo the Italians have obtained much more: the whole of
Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca, portions of Carniola, the whole of Istria and
contiguity with Rieka (which is made a free town), the islands of
Lussin, Cres and Unie, sovereignty over a strip of five miles which
includes Zadar (and a few adjacent islands), finally the southern island
of Lastovo and Pelagosa which lies in the middle of the Adriatic.

In Nove