break-up comes, those portions of the new state which formerly belonged
to Austria-Hungary will ally themselves with the great Teutonic or,
perhaps, Russo-Teutonic, confederation which, most students of European
affairs believe, will arise from the ruins of the Central Empires. When
that day comes the new power will look with hungering eyes toward the
rich markets which fringe the Middle Sea, and what more convenient
gateway through which to pour its merchandise--and, perhaps, its
fighting men--than Fiume in friendly hands? In order to bar forever
this, the sole gateway to the warm water still open to the Hun, the
Italians should, they maintain, be made its guardians.

"But," you argue, "suppose Jugoslavia does _not_ break up? How can
14,000,000 Slavs seriously menace Italy's 40,000,000?"

Ah! Now you touch the very heart of the whole matter; now you have put
your finger on the secret fear which has animated Italy throughout the
controversy over Fiume and Dalmatia. For I do not believe that it is a
reincarnated Germany which Italy dreads. It is something far more
ominous, more terrifying than that, which alarms her. For, looking
across the Adriatic, she sees the monstrous vision of a united and
aggressive Slavdom, untold millions strong, of which the Jugoslavs are
but the skirmish-line, ready to dispute not merely Italy's schemes for
the commercial mastery of the Balkans but her overlordship of that sea
which she regards as an Italian lake.

Jugoslavia's claims to Fiume are more briefly stated. Firstly, she lays
title to it on the ground that geographically Fiume belongs to Croatia,
and that Croatia is now a part of Jugoslavia, or, to give the new
country its correct name, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes. This claim is, I think, well founded, and this despite the