Page 322 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

322 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

an active social policy that brought considerable benefits to the population, as were besides
above mentioned, regular supplies of everyday necessities and food, an active health care
network, which alleviated war-related afflictions.
In economy, agriculture and finance, the Italian administration soon progressed from pro-
visional measures to introducing the same legislation and tax system that applied throughout
Italian territory, thus clearly violating the international law of war. The Italian currency was
introduced and it gradually took place of the old Austrian crown. Economic life was almost
extinguished on the occupied Slovene territory because of the war, cultivated areas were
abandoned and there was a lack of labour force. Thus the Italian authorities organised con-
tracts workers and arranged the requisitions of facilities, machinery, draught animals and
everything needed for agricultural activity.
In the areas of public life, where there was expression of ethnic affiliation of the occu-
pied territory and the composition of its population was clearly non –Italian, the occupying
authorities intervened with firm hand and entirely lost sight of the Hague principles. The un-
derlying task of the Italian authorities, in addition to dealing with current administrative and
public matters, was to prepare the occupied territory for the time when it would be included
in the Kingdom of Italy. Thus language and its use in public life became the basic tool of a
gradual but steady conjoining of public administrative life with that of Italy. The language
used by public officials in the occupied Slovene territories was Italian. From the very start,
orders of the Supreme Command and documents of the civilian authorities were written in
Italian. The intention of the Italians to remain on the Slovene lands after the war did not ap-
pear only in the relation to Italian official business but mainly in renaming or adapting Slov-
ene personal and family names and Slovene place names to Italian orthography and spelling.
The later was the task of the so-called Toponymics Commission of the General Secretariat
for Civil Affairs, which changed or adjusted Slovene place names, the names of Slovene
rivers and mountains, even the names of public roads and streets. At the end of 1917, a draft
book of 2500 place names of the entire province, also of the cisalpine part of Carniola, part
of the Trieste district and the land of Istria.
Another extremely sensitive area dealt with by the Italian administration was education,
as the aim of the occupation regime was to introduce Italian schools and the Italian educa-
tional system. Since educational facilities were state-run institutions, the language of in-
struction was Italian. The Italian administration made a complete break from the previous
Austrian system and, besides completely reorganising the school system, introduced Italian
curricula, Italian as the language of the state and of instruction (whereas in occupied Belgium
the Walloon and Flemish parts retained their own languages, cultures and traditions) and
Italian national holidays as part of everyday school life. In November 1916, a army chaplain
Giovanni Semeria proposed the introduction of bilingual schools in Slovene places of the
Venezia Giulia, but the authorities rejected his proposal. A specific wartime combination of
kindergarten education and traditional elementary school instruction was created (education
– recreation schools), guided by Italian soldier - teachers who were helped by the Slovene
teachers - refugee. The education programme approximated to school studies, bur particu-
larly its socialisation mission, through games, women’s and hand work, physical education,
singing, walks, storytelling etc. was strengthened towards familiarisation with Italian tradi-