"By general conviction," says the Admirals' summing up, "there exist at Split two political parties which are in sharp contradiction as to the future status of Dalmatia. The presence of Allied ships, and especially the Italian ones, has increased this contradiction rather than diminished it. On the day when disorders broke out at Split a few Italian sailors had made a small demonstration a little before the incidents. Certain movements and words on the part of youths, sympathizers with Yugoslavia, offended the Italian sailors. They were bold enough to arrest two of these youths.... This procedure of arresting them naturally and inevitably moved the great majority of the bystanders and was the actual cause of outrages. This act was approved by the Italian Naval Authorities, who accordingly are to be considered responsible for these disorders.... Several civilians and Serbian soldiers were wounded." The report adds that some Italian sailors were armed with knives and revolvers, contrary to the regulations of the Italian Naval Authorities, and concludes with these words: "By arresting some citizens the Italian sailors have committed an illegal act, which they carried out according to instructions that were given them by the Italian Naval Authorities. Accordingly the Commission considers these authorities responsible for the injuries inflicted on the Serbian soldiers." NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES But in many parts of Dalmatia and the islands the Italians had no fear of such a Commission. Let us see what they had been doing in the neighbourhood of Zadar, the old capital. Apart from the usual prohibitions with respect to newspapers and so forth, the municipalities were dissolved and an Italian commissary installed. Their first task was to introduce the Italian language and make it obligatory, although the commissary's own employees would often be not more acquainted with it than with Hindustani. Eighty-five per cent. of the civil servants in the occupied territory were Yugoslavs; during March and April 1919 they were deprived of their salaries because they had declined, in accordance with the existing laws and particularly in accordance with the terms of the Armistice, to make a request in Italian to the Provisional Government that they should be confirmed in their posts. This outrageous order, which left hundreds of families without the means of subsistence, was not merely illegal--let alone inhumane--but was in contradiction with an earlier order issued by Admiral Millo, which was placarded throughout the territory and which confirmed in their posts all the civil employees. However, the Italians were unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain these signatures, though they did not abandon their watchword: "Either Italy or starvation!" They never ceased to persecute the peasants of the surrounding country and islands. Commands, menaces, blows inflicted by carabinieri and officers, houses searched night after night, and so on....