Pola. On historic grounds Italy cannot lay claim to Trieste, which has been
a possession of the House of Habsburg since 1386 (400 years longer than
Dalmatia). But if as before we apply the principle of nationality, it is
indisputable that Trieste is an Italian town, though the whole surrounding
country up to the very suburbs is purely Slovene. On the other hand, the
commercial interests of Trieste are entirely bound up with its hinterland,
by which is meant not only the Alpine provinces, but Upper and Lower
Austria and Bohemia on the one hand and even south Germany (Bavaria) on
the other. Any settlement, then, must be a compromise between national and
economic interests. As an ancient centre of Italian culture, Trieste
would welcome the flag of the Regno upon its municipality, as the surest
guarantee that the town would remain Italian in character to all time. But
any attempt to include Trieste within the tariff system of the kingdom of
Italy would produce fatal results, and the obvious solution is to proclaim
the city as a free commercial port. Of course, from a purely Southern
Slav point of view, the fate of the town of Trieste (as distinct from the
district) ought to be a matter of complete indifference, though of course
the extremists claim it. It is, however, well to bear in mind that the
inclusion of Trieste in Italy's tariff system would mean the speedy
economic ruin of a great and flourishing commercial centre. Commercially,
then, Trieste is unthinkable save either as the port of Austria or as a
_porto franco_ under Italian suzerainty. So far as Istria is concerned,
there would be no insurmountable difficulty in drawing a satisfactory
frontier on ethnographical lines; the western portions, including
Capodistria, Rovigno, and Pola, are overwhelmingly Italian, while the
interior of the little province and the eastern shore (with Abbazia,
Lovrana, etc.) is as overwhelmingly Slavonic (Croat and Slovene mixed).
Any redistribution of territory on the basis of nationality must therefore
inevitably assign western Istria to Italy, and no reasonable Southern Slav
would raise any valid objection. Once more the essential fact to consider
is that the acquisition of Trieste and Pola by Italy presupposes the
disappearance of Austria-Hungary; otherwise it is not even remotely
possible. Hence it is no exaggeration to assert that the fate of Trieste
is one of the central issues in the whole European settlement. Once
make Trieste a f