THE ITALIAN PEACE TREATY
Klausner, Leopold C.
The Italian Peace Treaty By Leopold C. Klausner AFTER fifteen months of discussions in London, Paris and New York, ' the Foreign Ministers of the Big Four have finally reached accord on...
...Sla^vs 500,000...
...The Free State of Trieste certainly will not have the power to overcome the economic resistance of Yugoslavia, and she will be unable to overcome the difficulties which will arise because of the fact that the main railroads and all highways connecting her with Middle Europe pass through Yugoslavia...
...a second Weimar Republic was born in Italy during these last few weeks...
...In order to convert the agricultural proletariat in Italy into independent farmers, the age-old mezzadri system must be gradually abolished...
...To this end Italy as well as Yugoslavia would each have fo surrender about 700 km' to the Free State which thus would gain Gorizia in the north and Pola in the sduth...
...Only a real democratic land reform can change this medieval, aristocratic, agrarian system...
...It can be assumed that the four ex-satellite states will accept the respective Peace Treaties...
...It will require knowledge, justice, and the highest responsibility to bring the difficult !«•¦ of democratic land raferm in Italy te a successful end, and to transform the W* clothed, ill fed, sickle wielding peas****" Into hsppy and peaceful farmer...
...Hospitals, schools, hydraulic and hydro-electric plants, electric railways, aqueducts, roads and other engineering projects were constructed to the benefit of the whole population of Venezia Giulia...
...others 20,000) to an area at least three times as great...
...Three hundred thousand Italian ('artisans fought in Northern Italy, and with Tito's liberation forces in Venezia-Giulia...
...Some landholdings with a great expert , quota will better remain undivided...
...Libya, Eritrea, and Somaliland, enra huge barren territories, offer today good prospects, for the natives as well a* for the Italian settlers...
...struggle for control began...
...the entire hydro-electric system of Trieste and vicinity is dependent upon two chief sources which are located in that part of the Istrian peninsula which according to the French Line will go to Yugoslavia...
...And when at last the enemy broke down Italy was hopeful although her beautiful land from Sicily to the river Po in Northern Iter/ had become a heap of ruins...
...Load Reform tor Italy ^^NE of the greatest mistakes of the* leaders of Italy's resurrection of tht nineteenth century was that they neglected the interests of the Italian peasants...
...An impressive program was put into effect such as never could have been carried out by Yugoslavia...
...The severance of almost the whole of Venezia Giulia from Italy will cause serious consequences for the Italian economy...
...All Italian Colonies are legally baaed on treaties arrived at with the colonial powers, Britain, France, and Belgium...
...The new state would have about 550,000 inhabitants 80 percent of which will he Italians and 20 percent Slays...
...Such a law would do more harm than good to the nation...
...Furthermore, the Italian" farmer,must learn modern methods el agriculture...
...Venezia Giulia enjoys more than 10 percent of the entire Italian tourist trade...
...The big landowners have 45 percent of the whole agricultural income of the country, although they comprise not more than 1 percent of the 20,000,000 Italian peasants...
...two-third compensation for damages done to property of United Nations' nationals in Italy...
...Nearly 75 percent of Italy's bauxite and 30 percent of her coal output is derived from Istrian Venezia Giulia...
...As long as the royal dyna/ty and its satellites were ia power they did everything to prevent S land reform...
...and more than 50 percent of Italy's shipbuilding is done in Trieste and Monfalcone...
...AMitciale Editor of the World Affsir* Interpreter (University of Southern Califoi nia...
...Although Foreign Minister Pietro Nenni, Socialist leader, Is for the establishment of better relations with the Slavic Bloc, he too considers the Peace Treaty with Italy as unjust and unworkable...
...Wriltrr and Uetmrer a>j Foreign Policy...
...Five months ago Prime Minister Alcide de Gaspari protested against the fundamental provisions of the Peace Treaty, unanimously agreed upon by the four Foreign Ministers at the Paris Council meeting...
...Renunciation of their African possessions which they had built up in the lust few generations with blood and sweat and enormous financial sacrifices...
...Others again should be divided into smaller parts...
...The Slavic Bloc accased the Anglo-Americans of planning the establishment of a naval base in the port of Trieste, an iron curtain, a colony, and what not...
...As long as Italy wsl a monarchy it was impossible to realise the necessary reforms...
...In the last 25 years the Italian people had to pay about 8,000,000,000 Lira for the extraordinary expenditures of the Italian Government...
...A plebiscite should decide as to whether the people of the Province of Gorizia and of southwest lstria would agree to this plan...
...Nothing can justify the expulsion of Italy from territories which were acquired from the year IMtf on...
...The electoral success of the Socialists and Communists constitutes a serious threat to the position of Signor de Gaspari, whose loss of prestige will be accelerated by the political and economic consequences of the harsh treaty...
...Furthermore, half of Italy's entire food-packing trade, and one-third of all her refinery products rome from this area...
...Beautifully saldl However a Free State of Trieste cut off" from the Central European hinterland is an economic absurdity...
...From 1943, after Italy's surrender, to 194B, when the German Wehrmacht broke down, Italy was de jure co-belligerent and de facto a valuable ally of tha Allied Powers...
...payment of $300,000,000 in reparations...
...No wonder that the Italians are embittered and desperate...
...To understand what Venezia Giulia means to Italy one must know the remarkable achievements in the field of public works in this part of the Adriatic coastland...
...Almost 50 percent of Italians live a peasant life, and one-half of the peasants are not landowners but poor agricultural laliorers or so-called mezzadri, which means share croppers...
...It could only exist as an international WPA project...
...The Italian Peace Treaty By Leopold C. Klausner AFTER fifteen months of discussions in London, Paris and New York, ' the Foreign Ministers of the Big Four have finally reached accord on the Peace Treaties with Italy and the four ex-satellite states, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland...
...The Italian Colonies ^^T the Paris Council meeting of July, 1946, the Foreign Ministers of the Big Four agreed to postpone the final decisions on the African possessions of Italy...
...Official appraisal of the Allied High Command has given credit to the Italian Army, Navy and Airforre...
...These mezzadri do not own the soil os which they toil, but they must give up 50 percent of the crop to their masters (padroni), who are mostly aristocrats and high officials...
...There can be no doubt that the outcome would be overwhelmingly in favor of the enlargement of the Free State, which would be in a better position to survive...
...Italy's industrial development is greatly dependent upon the itsport of vital raw materials, especially coal, iron, and oil, hence it is important to improve agricultural conditions In Italy, because only agricultural exports can balance the necessary imports...
...Far* merly Director tieneral of the Pun-European Union...
...It is to be hoped that Italy will, keep the right to continue the administration of Libya, Eritrea and Somaliland' under the United Nations' Council of Trusteeship...
...It is to be hoped that Yugoslavs and Italians will get together and work out a peaceful revision of the treaty...
...Since then his party has lost some of its political influence...
...Those extremists who think, however, it can be done simply by passing a law whieh would break up at once all big landholdings are mistaken...
...To take away from Italy the future administration of her African possessions, would be a punishment of the Italian •people who cannot be made responsible for the crimes of the Fascist regime...
...Senator Connally in protest against these accusations exclaimed: "Trieste must be a real State, with its own character, its own strength, Its own independence and its own dignity...
...The Free Stete of Trieste— An Economic Monstrosity As soon as the Foreign Ministers had agreed at Paris to the establishment of a Free State of Trieste the...
...During the bloody fight on the Italian mainland, the Italian population supported the advancing armies with everything they had...
...The derision of the Peace Treaty on Venezia Giulia will not only disrupt the economy there, but also impair the economic as well as the political conditions of the whole Italian Republic...
...Because of her poor income she can hardly hope to obtain the staggering sums necessary for the rebuilding of her wrecked dockyards and industrial equipnient...
...They scuttled units of their Navy in order to prevent them from falling into German hands, and the Italian Fleet cooperated with the British and American forces...
...The revision might be achieved along the following lines: the territory of the Free State of Trieste should be extended from the present area of 783 km (population: Italians 265,000...
...Voe Vlctis!— Woe to the Vanquished...
...But will the Italian Government do so...
...In fact the whole Italian population—with exception of an insignificant number of Communists working in the factories and shipyards of Trieste and Monfalcone—all hate the treaty violently, just as the Germans hated the Treaty of Versailles...
...and his party, the Christian Democrats, which then held two-fifth of the seats in the Constituent Assembly, declared that they would oppose the ratification of the Treaty...
...It would be disastrous if the leai ers of the future Italy should repeat this mistake...
...He must so encouraged to organise cooperatives, which will make It possible for him to cultivate, to harvest, and to sell with the greatest economy and profit...
...loss of the cities and ports of Trieste, Pola, Fiume, and /.hi a, all of which are Italian settlements from the days of ancient Rome—on the whole the loss of 90 percent of the Adriatic coastland (Venezia Giulia) gained from the dissolved Hapsburg Empire, after 600,000 Italian soldiers gave their lives in the first world war—all this, the Italians say, is -asking too much, even if their resistance against the Germans in the last two-years of this war had been nil...
...He must cultivate s greatef variety of products, especially vegetable and livestock which are less competitive to imports from overseas...
...But who will be ready to finance it in view of the uncertainties of the future economy of the Free State...
...All these agrarian roforms however, must fall if long-tarm laternational lease are not provided In order to finance the whole program, and to makt it possible for the farmers to buy ths necessary aeads, tools, and animals...
...Gaetano Salvemini, whom no one ran call anti-Slav, stated recently in a letter to this writer: "The Italian people are treated in the same way as the German people were treated in 1919...
...These treaties are to be signed at the next Council meeting convening on February 10 at Paris...
Vol. 30 • January 1947 • No. 4
