FIUME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 224, 16 June 1919, Page 5

FIUME

THE ITALIAN CASE.■ (From an Italian Correspondent of the "Morning Post.") On October 18, three weeks before the armistice, the deputy for Fiume, Andrea Ossoina, who had been elected by a unanimous vote, declared in the Parliament of Budapest that Fiume always had been and wished to remain Italian. On October 30, while the war still lasted. the National Council of Fiume boldly passed a resolution which demanded tho right of self-determination and proclaimed tho union of the city with Italy. Up to 1818, by reason of its Italian character. Finmo was nn autonomous city, united as a . corpus separatum to Hungary. Between 181S ana 18G7 it was temporarily occupied by Croatian troops, who wero allies of' Austria against revolutionary Hungary. The Croatian commander, Bunicvac, recognised immedU ntcly the Italian character of the city, and promised to respect its language and its Italian schools. Notwithstanding that, tho population of Fiume rose in' revolt and -protested .-.gainst the Croatian occupation. In order to quell the revolt the Croatian Government proclaimed martial law and applied the penalty of death, but, in order to have the decree understood by the people, it was published in the Italian language. On three occasions tho Croatiau Government invited tho people of Fiume to Bond deputies to the Diet at Zagreb (Agram), but this.they always refused to do. In 18G7 Fiume regained its autonomy, which it has preserved to the present day.

The . census of 1910 gives for Fiuina 31,000 Italians and 15,000 Slavs,-.made up of Crofits, Slovenes, and Serbs. The ftraifer part of these Slavs has recently immigrated into the city. Tlio result is that, while 90 per cent, of the Italian inhabitants have been born in the city of Fiumian families, only 4.5 wr centv <jf the Croats, .4 per cent of tho Sloveness, anu' .'l per cent, of the Serbs who live at Fiumo were born of native parents there.An examination of the funeral monuments in tho cemetery 6hows that more than 80 per cent, of them are written in Italian and only 7 per cent, in Han. The inscriptions of the last'Thres years are- all Italian, the oldest Croat insertion not dating from later than 1860.

Fiume is not the' reai. economic, outlet' of Jugo-Slavin. Witliiu the last ten years only 13 per cent, of tlie whole commerce of the Jugoslav lands (Croatia, Carniola, Bosnia, Herzegovina, etc.) passed through Fiume, but Fiume is in a special way the port of Hungary. As a matter of fact, within the last ten years 93 per cent., of its commerce was made up of; imports and exports to and from Hungary. Hungary has nlreudy declared that it prefers for the liberty of its commerce that the Italians should possess Fiume rather than it should 'be in the hands of the Jugoslavs. Outside Fiume Jugo-Sla+ia will ho given more than ten ports on the Adriatic. The importance of this ha? been recognised by the Jugo-Slav deputies themselves.' The Croatian deputy Tresich Pavicich declared in an interview published in the "Manchester Guardian" of March 22 that Buccnri (Bnk'nr) is capable of competing strongly with Fiume.