in Triest in the summer of 1919 the other
delegates were electrified by two priests from Istria who declared that
their people were straining at the leash, anxious for the word to snatch
up their weapons. (Many of these weapons, by the way, were of Italian
origin, as there had been no great difficulty in purchasing them from
the more pacific or the more Socialistic Italian soldiers; the usual
price was ten lire for a rifle and a hundred rounds.) If there should
come about a war between Italy and Yugoslavia, then it is to be supposed
that the Yugoslavs will afterwards take as their western frontier the
old frontier of Austria (except for the Friuli district, south of
Cormons, which they do not covet, since they look upon this ancient race
as Italian.)

By signing the Treaty of Rapallo the Yugoslav Government has shown that
it is ready to go to very great lengths in order to establish, as
securely as may be, an era of peace. It would be just as creditable on
the part of the Italians if they will consent to Istria being
partitioned in the way we have suggested, for they have been wrongly
taught to think themselves entitled to this country, and to believe that
the inhabitants, as a whole, are glad to be Italian subjects. "You may
suppose we are unpatriotic," the Austrian railway officials of Italian
nationality used to say, "but as Austria gives much better pay than we
should receive from Italy, we prefer that this part of the world should
be Austrian."

The relations between Italy and Yugoslavia have been treated at some
length, for it would require but little to bring a gathering of
storm-clouds to the sky. One even hears of Roman Catholics in Istria and
elsewhere abjuring their Church and--for the national cause--adopting
the Serbian Orthodox faith. Twenty years ago it happened that two
Istrian villages, Ricmanje and Log, went over to the Uniate and thence
to the Orthodox Church. This was on account of a quarrel with the Bishop
of Triest, who wanted, against the wishes of the people, to remove their
priest, Dr. Pojar. But now we have priests in the provinces given to
Italy who are openly calling on their flock to go over with them to
their Orthodox brothers; and this is a movement which, it is thought,
will merely be postponed by the introduction of the Slav liturgy. To
take a single sermon out of many, we may mention one which in the summer
of 1920 was preached in a church of the Vipava valley. The clergyman,
after la