This matter of the frontiers had been very lucidly set before the Allies
with regard to Dalmatia and Rieka; it now remained for the Slovenes to
formulate their case. From the statement given by Dr. Trumbi['c] to the
Council of Ten in Paris we will take these extracts: "The province of
Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca may be divided into two different parts, both from an
ethnical and economic point of view. The western part, up to the line
Cormons-Gradi[vs]ca-Monfalcone, is economically self-supporting. If we
estimate the population on a language basis, there are about 72,000
Italians and 6000 Slovenes. Geographically it is simply the prolongation
of the Venetian plain. We do not claim this territory called Friuli,
which belongs ethnologically to the Italians. The rest of this province
to the east and the north of the Cormons-Gradi[vs]ca-Monfalcone line,
which comprises the mountainous region, is inhabited by 148,500 Slovenes
and 17,000 Italians, of whom 14,000 are in the town of Gorica, where
they constitute half the population.... The Slovenes are an advanced and
civilized people, acutely conscious of their racial solidarity with the
other Yugoslav peoples. We therefore ask that this district should be
reunited to our State.... Istria is inhabited by Slavs and Italians.
According to the latest statistics, there were in it 223,318 Yugoslavs
and 147,417 Italians. The Slavs inhabit central and eastern Istria in a
compact mass. More Italians live on the western coast, particularly in
the towns. They inhabit only five villages north of Pola, and their
populations have no territorial unity. Istria is territorially linked
with Carniola and Croatia, whereas it is separated from Italy by the
Adriatic, and therefore it ought to belong to the Yugoslav State....
Triest and its neighbourhood is geographically an integral part of
purely Slav territories. The majority of this town--two-thirds,
according to statistics--is Italian and the rest Slav. These statistics
being on the language basis, include Germans, Greeks, Levantines, etc.,
as Italian-speaking, among the Italians. The Slav element plays an
important part in the commercial and economic life of Triest. If the
town were ethnically in contact with Italy we would recognize the right
of the majority. But all the hinterland of Triest is entirely Slav. Yet
the commercial and maritime value of Triest is what chiefly counts, and
it is a port of world trade. As such it is the representative of its
hinterland, which stretches as far as Bohemia, and chiefly of its
Slovene hinterland, which forms a third of the whole trade of Triest
and is inextricably linked with it. Should Triest become Italian it
would be politically separated from its trade hinterland, and would be
prejudiced in a commercial respect. Since Austria has crumbled as a
State, the natural solution of the problem of Triest is that it should
be joined to our State."