Page 323 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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tion and culture and the Italian language. Study was enriched by abundant school meals,
and occasionally gifts were distributed among children, mainly Italian books, clothes and
shoes. During the days of war, such an approach met wit satisfaction among the terrified and
uncertain population, although it concealed a more devious aim, i.e. gradual preparation to
italian schools.
the 12 Soča offensive in October 1917, in which the joint Austro-German army pressed
th
Italian army to the Piave, interrupted for a year the operation of the Italian administration
in the occupied Slovene lands. The black and yellow Austrian and Slovene national flags
again flew at the end of October. This event gave the opportunity to the people to return to
their homes. Regardless that they had nothing left, that their villages were pillaged and burnt
down, and their fields were trampled down, the people were nevertheless filled with relief.
The battles in the Soča area left in its trail indescribable devastation. Out of 107 Slovenian
municipalities 33 were razed to the ground; 35 were severely destroyed; 50 were completely
plundered; and 25 stood partly ravaged. 28,000 buildings were damaged: 8,994 were com-
pletely and 3,747 severely destroyed; another 14,736 buildings were looted. Industrial plants
and facilities in the Trieste and Gorizia areas were destroyed; in Trieste the war left the
heaviest toll on trade and port traffic. Already in 1919, immediately after the occupation, the
Italian government issued a law on the compensation for war damages that was granted only
to a fistful of Slovenes. The reparation of war damage, especially in agriculture, was a slow
and never fully completed process.
On the 3rd November 1918 the Italian army returned to the Slovene (former Austro-
Hungarian) territory and seized it in compliance with the Treaty of London’s stipulations,
pushing the border further eastwards. In the summer of 1919 the military administration gave
way to a civil administration. And finally, when the Treaty of Rapallo concerning the border
between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was signed on
12 November 1920, these territories were ultimately annexed to the Kingdom of Italy. The
general enthusiasm over war’s ending and the return home faded.
A particularly noteworthy fact is that the Italian occupation of Slovene territory during
World War I showed that, even though international law held that an occupying state could
not make any claims on the territories under direct occupation, the situation in practice spoke
more in favour of those states which seized enemy territories either by themselves or with
their allies’ assistance.