cannot be defended by a State which is not in possession of the
hinterland. In time of peace a very strong army would be needed; Italy
would, in fact, have to double her army for the defence of a frontier
700 kilometres long. And in the event of war it would be necessary
either to abandon Dalmatia or to form two armies of operation, one on
the frontiers of Julian Venetia, the other in Dalmatia, and without any
liaison between them. From the military point of view it is incomparably
more to the interest of Italy that she should live on friendly terms
with the people of the eastern shore of the Adriatic than that she
should maintain there an army out of all proportion to her military and
economic resources--an army which in time of war would be worse than
useless, since, as M. Gauvain observes, the submarines, which would find
their nesting-places in the islands, would destroy the lines of
communication. An Italian naval argument is, that if she had to fight on
the eastern side of the Adriatic her sailors in the morning would have
the sun in their eyes; but the Yugoslavs would be similarly handicapped
in the case of an evening battle. With regard to the economic reasons,
the longitudinal lines will continue to guarantee to the Germans and
Magyars the commercial monopoly of the East, and Italy will perceive
that she has paid very dearly for a blocked-up window. The sole method
by which Italy can from the Adriatic cause her commerce to penetrate to
the Balkans is by concluding with a friendly Yugoslavia the requisite
commercial treaties, which will grow more valuable with the construction
of the lateral railways, running inland from the coast, which Austrians
and Magyars so constantly impeded.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF LONDON
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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