1880 10,227 (49%) 9,237 (44%) 379 (2%)
1890 13,478 (46%) 13,012 (44%) 1,062 (4%)
1900 16,197 (42%) 17,354 (45%) 2,842 (7%)
1910 15,692 (32%) 24,212 (49%) 6,493 (13%)
Assuming for the moment that these figures are correct--and it is an
enormous assumption[17]--are not the Autonomists to be found chiefly
among the Italians and Magyars? It is claimed that the Autonomist,
Socialist and Slav vote exceeds that of those who desire annexation to
Italy. One need not treat _au serieux_ the great procession organized by
the Italianists, when they could not scrape together more than about
4000 persons, including many schoolboys and girls, the municipal clerks,
visitors from Italy, Triest and Zadar. One need not gibe the Italianists
with the numbers who followed Dr. Vio on that famous day when, weary of
palavering, he summoned round him his supporters and strode off to the
Governor's palace, where General Grazioli, who had succeeded General di
San Marzano, was installed.[18] Arrived there, Dr. Vio with a superb
gesture begged the General to accept the town in the name of Italy. It
is not often in the lifetime of a man that he has the opportunity of
giving a whole town away. Dr. Vio made the most of that occasion; if the
crowd which followed him was disappointing, there may be good
explanations. The allegiance of a town, one may submit, should be
settled in another fashion. The house-to-house inquiry, conducted in the
spring of 1919 by the Autonomists--resulting in an anti-annexionist
majority--was much impeded by the police; and it is of course the
business of the authorities and not of any one party to hold elections
in a town. Had the Italian National Council, bereaving themselves of
Italian bayonets, held a real plebiscite--secret or otherwise--the
result would doubtless have given them pain, but no surprise.... And
this will happen even if the Magyar system of separating Rieka from the
suburb of Su[vs]ak is perpetrated. Su[vs]ak contains about 12,500
Yugoslavs and extremely few Italianists; and, by the way, to show how
the Magyars and the Italianists worked together, it is worth mentioning
that the Magyar railway officials who lived at Su[vs]ak were allowed a
vote at Rieka, while if a Croat lived at Su[vs]ak and carried on his
avocation at Rieka he could vote in Su[vs]ak only. One must not imagine
that Su[vs]ak is a poor relation; most people would prefer to live
there. Dr. Vio was intensely wrathful because the British General
resided in a beautifully situated house there by the sea. Not only is
Su[vs]ak about twenty yards, across a stream, from Rieka, but from a
commercial point of view their separation seems absurd, since half the
port, including the great wood depots, is in Su[vs]ak. One of these
timber merchants presented an example of Italianization. His original
name was E. R. Sarinich and this was painted on his business premises at
Su[vs]ak, while in Rieka he called himself Sarini. It must have caused
him many sleepless nights.... Counting Su[vs]ak with Rieka as one town,
the total population in the autumn of 1918 was about 51 per cent.
Yugoslav, 39 per cent. Italian and 10 per cent. Magyar. These Magyars,
by the way, seem not to have been noticed by Mr. Beaumont. There were
still a good number of them in the town. "Whilst Italy might have
consented," says Mr. Beaumont, "to a compromise with Hungary, had that
State continued to exist as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she
certainly never contemplated handing over"--["handing over" is rather
humorous]--"Fiume and its exclusively Italian population to the
Jugo-Slavs." Underneath Mr. Beaumont's dispatch there is printed a
semi-official statement, sent by Reuter, from Rome. "Yesterday
afternoon," it says, "our troops occupied Fiume. The occupation, which
was made for reasons of public order, was decided upon in view not only
of the urgent and legitimate demands of the Italian citizens of Fiume,
but also of the insistent appeals of eminent foreigners...."