y; another class of person, who had
erstwhile been regarded as Austrian spies, did not hesitate a moment to
proclaim that they were the most ardent Italian patriots. All these
people were ready enough to give their signatures to anything in return
for the Italian bounty, and to endeavour to persuade others to do so; in
that way the Italians collected 6000 signatures, whereas the Italianists
of Split were, at the outside, 1800; at Trogir, where the Italianists
numbered 80 to 100, they collected more than 1000 signatures.

THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR

To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to the years just
before the War. From the reports of the Austrian Intelligence Officer,
Captain Bukvich, we shall see what was the attitude of the Slavs and the
Italianists respectively towards the Government, and hence towards each
other. It may be that the very loyal, some would call it cringing,
attitude of the Italianists was forced upon them by the great
inferiority of their numbers. What they were aiming at, with very few
exceptions, were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others of
which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream, when between
the smoke of his cigarette he saw the Italian tricolour flying over
Dalmatia. If this lonely dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with
the purpose of awakening in people an interest in what some day might
happen, he would have found that most of the Italians had never heard of
Dalmatia. But among those who had heard were the officials of the "Liga
Nazionale," which assisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those
famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668) which Padouch, the
successor of Bukvich as Intelligence Officer, sent from Split on
September 25, 1915, to the Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an
Italian of this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject
before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly told me that in
their Liga school one-third of the children, at the most, have parents
whose nationality has always been Italian. The others are children of
the people, of that class which on account of its humble social position
has lost its national consciousness. He told me that the parents
received subsidies and the children clothes, school-books, etc.,
gratuitously."

The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his superiors at Mostar. No
doubt a great many documents were destroyed just before t