and hostile attitude of a very small band of British writers with regard to their legitimate and vital interests in the Adriatic. The want of understanding and sympathy towards their most sacred aspirations, towards their martyred brothers of Dalmatia and Istria, has puzzled and upset them. It is inconceivable for them that even a few in this country, which we love so much and which is bound to Italy as no other nation is by ties of close, natural, more even than diplomatic, friendship, should have represented these interests and aspirations as grasping; should have totally ignored or misinterpreted that hard national suffering of the Italians of the eastern shore of the Adriatic, victims of Austria's dynastic policy of Croatisation. All sorts of historical falsehoods have been circulated in order to deceive the unwary into crediting the legend that Italy wishes to deny the Slavs an outlet in the Adriatic. And while the case of the Southern Slavs, and even of those Croatians who have been the tools of Austrian tyranny in the last fifty years, has been exploited and accepted with sympathy, Italy's rights have been not only ignored, but even violently attacked.

Italy, as everyone knows, is a highly liberal and democratic nation. Every Englishman ought to be convinced that her return to the countries which have always belonged to her, and which Austria has wantonly tried to denationalise, will not endanger the free national development and liberties of the Slavs who, mixed with Italians, compose the population of those countries. Serbia at the end of the war will get probably ten times as much as Italy, and in some territories allotted to her (as, for instance, in Albania, and even in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most Serbian of all Serbian provinces, where there are more than eight hundred thousand of Mussulmans) she may find many more nonSerbians than the Slavs Italy will have to rule in Istria and her portion of Dalmatia, who do not even altogether amount to the number of inhabitants of a London suburb.

Italy has now entered the war, and is ready to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of human lives and milliards of francs, and to stake the immortal beauty and art treasures of Venice, of Ravenna, of Rimini, of Bari, and her other most beautiful Adriatic towns, and to stake even her very national existence. It would be sheer madness to think that she will renounce her claim to the Adriatic, or encourage the further denationalisation of its eastern shores, after having strenuously fought for it and for her own existence. We do not yet know in what fashion the Italian Army is likely to proceed through the Alps and the plains in its invasion of Austria, in its firm will to reach the Austrian capital. We

know only that the war in the Adriatic will be the most difficult task for our nation.

This is, therefore, the wish of the Italians that everybody, especially in this country, should try to understand Italy's enormous difficulties, the incalculable value of her present intervention, and her very modest aspirations. Such a serene understanding will prove at the end most beneficial to the ever closer friendship between their country and the Entente.

Italy at this hour wishes, as I said, to safeguard herself and to accomplish that unity which circumstances had prevented her from doing before-that is, the union of all Italians under the Italian flag. Nor can this in any way clash with the principle of nationality, of which, as all know, Italy has always been a warm supporter. The restoration of the Trentino, Trieste, Istria, Fiume, and part of Dalmatia to Italy is not territorial aggrandisement, for Italy is recovering what she has been mistress of for twenty centuries. Since the days of the first Risorgimento, Italy has stood for freedom and justice and for the highest democratic ideals. They are those for which she is now fighting, those which bind her so closely to the British people.

It is very important, especially at this juncture, that there should be no possible ground or loophole for misunderstandings. It is of supreme and vital interest that the English should fully understand Italy's position and her aims, which are identical with those of her other Allies.

In an interview in the Den, a few days ago, M. Sazonoff dwelt upon the tremendous importance and value of Italy's intervention in helping materially to shorten the war. He also pointed out that Serbo-Italian relations are of the most friendly kind, and that Serbia would receive good ports and her desire for access to the "sea of Venice" would be fully satisfied.

This statement, coupled with that of M. Pasich to the effect that Serbia was willing to accept the agreement come to between Russia and Italy with regard to the eastern coast of the Adriatic, should once and for all set at rest unfounded fears which some worthy ultra-Pan-Slavists have had as to Italy's programme in the Adriatic.

Moreover, this is incorporated in the agreement signed on April 27th by the Entente Powers.

Any further discussion of this matter, based on more or less inaccurate information, can only be of harm to the united cause of the Allies, and lead to harmful and useless friction between the now united Italian and Serbian peoples-a unity which all Italians and all Englishmen have always sincerely desired.

Italy does not belong to those nations whose most instinctive

habit is the violation of agreements. Anybody daring to discuss or proposing to violate the agreement between Italy and the Entente, which has brought Italy on the side of the Allies, fighting for the cause of justice and freedom, would prove to be an enemy not only of Italy, but of his own country, and, what is even worse, of justice and freedom.

England and Italy's war has, however, definitely frustrated the vain attempts of the apostles of Pan-German and Pan-Slav imperialisms. Cordial, fair, and straightforward compromise is the unique way of settling for long time and let us hope for ever -the restless and selfish instincts of humanity.

ANTONIO CIPPICO.

A SHRINKING COLONIAL EMPIRE.

WITH the surrender of German South-West Africa about onehalf of Germany's colonial area has been lost. It has taken nearly a year to conquer it. The second half of Germany's colonial possessions will probably be taken much more rapidly. Before long Germany's Colonial Empire may be a thing of the past. Influential voices have been heard criticising and condemning the attacks made on the German colonies as superfluous, as a mere waste of effort at a time when every man able to bear arms was wanted in the European theatre of war where the struggle would be decided. Under these circumstances it seems timely to consider the extent and value of Germany's colonial possessions and to inquire whether their conquest was desirable and necessary.

Many people who are insufficiently acquainted with the German colonies describe them as small and valueless. They are neither the one nor the other. Small and large, valuable and valueless are terms of comparison. Comparatively speaking the German colonies are not small and they are not without actual and prospective value.

The extent of the German Colonial Empire will be seen from the following figures :

Togo
Kamerun

South-West Africa.

East Africa

Square Miles.

...

New Guinea and Pacific Islands

...

...

96,160

1,128,690

The German Empire embraces 208,780 square miles, France extends to 207,076 square miles, Austria-Hungary has 261,030 square miles, Italy 110,623 square miles, Spain 196,173 square miles and the United Kingdom 121,633 square miles. The German Colonial Empire is more than nine times as large as the United Kingdom. It is a little larger than Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain and Great Britain combined, and it is somewhat larger than the whole of Argentina. The Union of South Africa contains 473,100 square miles and Rhodesia 439,575 square miles. Germany's African possessions alone are

therefore considerably larger than the Cape Province, Natal, the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Rhodesia combined.

The value of land of all kinds, and especially of very extensive land, of vast colonies, cannot be ascertained by ordinary commercial principles, by the question what will it fetch in the market, what does it produce, what profits does it yield? The value of land is actual and potential. Lands possessed by a nation have furthermore, not only an actual and prospective economic value, but a strategic value as well. Economically, Gibraltar, Malta, and many other important points are worth very little, or are a positive burden, to the Empire, because the cost of their upkeep is greater than the income which they yield. Nevertheless other nations would gladly purchase from Great Britain some of her economically valueless possessions at a very high price.

Let us first of all consider the economic value of the German Colonial Empire.

Land of all kinds has an actual and prospective value. An unwholesome morass near a large town may become invaluable building land some years hence after having been drained. Arid desert territories in Arizona and New Mexico, which a few years ago were valueless and were considered unusable for any purpose, have been turned into bounteous agricultural land and orchards by means of irrigation. A few decades ago, the ground containing the Kimberley diamond mines and the gold mines of the Rand could be bought at the price of inferior agricultural and pastoral land. A century and a half ago, when France lost Canada to England, Voltaire wondered that great and intelligent nations should go to war for "quelques arpents de neige." At present Canada contains many more inhabitants than the three greatest departments of France, the departement de la Seine with Paris, the departement du Nord with Lille and Roubaix, and the departement Pas de Calais. When France evacuated Canada, a few thousand Frenchmen were left behind. Their number has increased to more than three millions. At the present moment there are actually more Frenchmen of Canadian extraction than live in Paris itself. The time will probably come when the population of Canada will be very much greater than that of France within its present limits.

One of the most remarkable features of modern times has been the expansion of the European race. In 1800 less than 10,000,000 white men lived outside Europe. At present the number of white men outside Europe approaches 150,000,000. The time undoubtedly will come when the majority of people of the white race live on the spacious continents across the sea. In 1800 the United