fact that Italy has attempted to prove, by means of innumerable
pamphlets and maps, that Fiume, being within the great semi-circular
wall formed by the Alps, is physically Italian. The Jugoslavs demand
Fiume, secondly, because, they assert, if Fiume and Sussak are
considered as a single city, that city has more Slavs than Italians,
while the population of the hinterland is almost solidly Croatian. With
the first half of this claim I cannot agree. As I have already pointed
out, Sussak is not, and never has been, a part of Fiume, and its
annexation is not demanded by the Italians. Conceding, however, for the
sake of argument, that Fiume and Sussak are parts of the same city, the
most reliable figures which I have been able to obtain show that, even
were the Slav majority in Sussak added to the Slav minority in Fiume,
the Slavs would still be able to muster barely more than a third of the
total population. By far the strongest title which the Slavs have to the
city, and the one which commands for them the greatest sympathy, is
their assertion that Fiume is the natural and, indeed, almost the only
practicable commercial outlet for Jugoslavia, and that the struggling
young state needs it desperately. In reply to this, the Italians point
out that there are numerous harbors along the Dalmatian coast which
would answer the needs of Jugoslavia as well, or almost as well, as
Fiume. Now, I am speaking from first-hand knowledge when I assert that
this is not so, for I have seen with my own eyes every harbor, or
potential harbor, on the eastern coast of the Adriatic from Istria to
Greece. As a matter of fact, the entire coast of Dalmatia would not make
up to the Jugoslavs for the loss of Fiume. The map gives no idea of the
city's importance as the southernmost point at which a standard-gauge
railway reaches the Adriatic, for the railway leading to Ragusa, to
which the Italians so repeatedly refer as providing an outlet for
Jugoslavia, is not only narrow-gauge but is in part a rack-and-pinion
mountain line. The situation is best summed up by the commander of the