Trieste Close-Up

"Italy," said Prince Metternich at the Congress of Vienna, "is only a geographical expression." At any peace conference, the people who happen to live in disputed areas are apt to be mere political and geographic symbols. Yet every hill and valley has its majorities and minorities, its dead heroes and live arguments, its habits, slogans and heartaches. From Trieste last week TIME Correspondent Robert Low cabled a close scrutiny of Venezia Giulia:

The Big Four's decision to internationalize Trieste and give Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia was a far greater blow to the Italians in Italy than to the Italians in Trieste. Where people can see Tito troops by going a couple of miles to the boundary between Zone A (Anglo-American control) and Zone B (Yugoslav control), patriotism is tempered by practical considerations. Most of the 270,000 Italians in Trieste, after expressing their dislike of Slavs and Communists, say:

"Nationalism is a fine thing, but a luxury we can no longer afford. Perhaps we will fare better if we are not tied to a defeated Italy, but guided by an international commission--and it may keep out Tito and his Communism."

Flexible Flag. Though he has failed, thus far, to get Trieste, Tito has shown how to make a minority pay off. In all Venezia Giulia there are not enough Communists, Slovene and Italian combined, to win a straight political election. Together they would represent perhaps 20% of the 900,000 population. Nor are there enough Slovenes to win an ethnical plebiscite. They are about 45% of the population; almost all pro-Yugoslav, but much less than half of them Communist.

Tito had to be flexible enough to unite Italian Communist workers with conservative Slovene farmers. His "nationalistic internationalism" says in the same breath: "Slovenes--unite with your brother Slavs in the new greater powerful Yugoslav fatherland," and "Italians--unite with the new greater international brotherhood of the proletariat--down with nationalism." He even designed a new Italian flag, with a red star in the center of the white stripe, to please the Italian Communists. But in Tito's Zone B, Italian Communists cannot display it.

The high command of the Giulian Communist Party is the U.A.L.S. (Italo-Slovene Union of Anti-Fascists), a small inner-sanctum group whose chief strategist is Professor Oscar Ferlan. He concedes that Tito's Government is a dictatorship, but claims: "In Trieste as in Yugoslavia, the minority must act for the good of the majority."

Flaunted Funerals. Ever since A.M.G. took over Trieste, Tito's PNOO (Regional Liberation Committee), backed by a local secret-police force on NKVD lines, has been in underground opposition to it. The battle reached its height in early July when the editor of Glas Savozaikov, the Slovene paper, was fined 200,000 lire for publishing false rumors about A.M.G. "calculated to excite and alarm the people."

To keep passions alive, the Communists Arrange a "reburial demonstration" almost every week. They dig up a Partisan killed over a year ago in the fighting for Trieste, and take his body to a cemetery on the other side of town for a spectacular reinterment.

I watched one of these affairs. Outwardly, the procession was orderly and dignified. But as it passed through Trieste you could feel the tension grow as Italians gathered along the sidewalks to watch in silence. It was the setup for an incident of the kind which "provoke" Tito to action: "Partisan's funeral attacked by Italian Fascists."

On his side of the line, Tito has done plenty of provoking. If the peace conference confirms the Big Four decision, about 350,000 Italians will be included in Yugoslavia. The future for these non-Communist Italians has already been shown in Zone B. While the charge of "Fascist" made against wealthier Italians is true in many cases, it is also used indiscriminately against non-Fascists.

Throughout Venezia Giulia, the Communists are campaigning against the Church. Recently both the Bishop of Trieste and the Archbishop of Gorizia have been stoned on the steps of their cathedrals.

Frantic Fractions. It is impossible for correspondents to get permission to move freely in Zone B. But I managed to get a pass to drive from Trieste to Pola, which a small British detachment occupies. The Yugoslavs have marked off one highway as a supply route for the British. Allied vehicles are not allowed to stop at any point, and are fired on if they leave the road.

At Pola, a former Italian naval base, about 40,000 Italians were preparing to evacuate. Houses worth $20,000 were being offered for $200 or less. Shopkeepers were trying frantically to turn their stocks into cash. The Italians had openly threatened to burn the town down before leaving, and a very worried British major representing A.M.G. predicted:

"If the Yugoslavs get word that the Italians are going to destroy anything, they will force their way across our lines and then we'll be in a hell of a spot. I've tried to explain to the Italians. But it's damn difficult to convince them."

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