s Italian and the rest Slav. These statistics
being on the language basis, include Germans, Greeks, Levantines, etc.,
as Italian-speaking, among the Italians. The Slav element plays an
important part in the commercial and economic life of Triest. If the
town were ethnically in contact with Italy we would recognize the right
of the majority. But all the hinterland of Triest is entirely Slav. Yet
the commercial and maritime value of Triest is what chiefly counts, and
it is a port of world trade. As such it is the representative of its
hinterland, which stretches as far as Bohemia, and chiefly of its
Slovene hinterland, which forms a third of the whole trade of Triest
and is inextricably linked with it. Should Triest become Italian it
would be politically separated from its trade hinterland, and would be
prejudiced in a commercial respect. Since Austria has crumbled as a
State, the natural solution of the problem of Triest is that it should
be joined to our State."

THE SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST

It would be futile to talk of Triest without considering the relations
between Italians and Germans. We have seen already how at the elections
they combined against the "common enemy." But in commerce the Germans
were in need of no alliance, for the Italians have relatively so little
capital to dispose of that they were unable to keep the Germans from
attaining that very dominant position in Italy. As the Italians have, as
a general rule, a lack of initiative and enterprise with respect to
modern industry, it was to German efforts that the great industrial and
commercial awakening of Italy and of Triest were largely due. In that
town the Italians were principally agents; and it is to be feared that
if it ultimately falls into their hands it will become a German town
under the Italian flag. It would be the object of the Italians to
emancipate Austria from the Yugoslavs, giving them an outlet to Triest
over Italian territory; and it would be to the Italian advantage if
Austria were joined to Germany. Therefore it is preferable for all the
Allies, except the Italians, that Triest should be international.
Conditions could then be offered to the Austrians that would cause them
to prefer these rather than to join themselves to Germany. But, in the
opinion also of many enlightened Italians, it is not in that country's
interest that she should hold Triest. Apart from the older publicists
and statesmen, including Sonnino, who might wish to m