The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 55
"[ 55 ] • • But President Wilson did not answer the claim that the same obligations should be imposed on all States which possess minorities. That still remains unanswered and the inequality that which results from the Treaties is resented far more strongly than the interference with domestic affairs which their p1ovisions involve. " ( Ibid. p. 35 ). Among those countries to which new minorities have been added after the war, one is Italy. No under taking has been taken from this country regarding minorities. But the plight of minorities there is enough to indicate the importance of the need for their protec tion. ( The case may well serve as an object lesson to the Mussalmans to see what is likely to be their end in case they agree to a settlement with their Hindu com patriots without adequately safeguarding their own interests. } In the newly ceded Italian territory there are parts inhabited by Germans, :'lnd parts inhabited by Serbs and Groats. How Italy, a country far more advanced than India, has treated those people '\vill be clear from an inter. . view given by Signor Mussolini to a French journalist in February, 1926. Miss Mair ,vrites this as under: ,• When I visited the South Tyrol, ( Austrian territory which Italy has obtained now wherein German population predominates), I noticed that everything there was Ger man :-Church, Schools, public functionaries, railway and post officials. Every where HothiI'g but the German language was heard and people sang songs such as in Rome would have caused their immediate arrest. Now in all the schools of this Province the teaching of the Italian language is obligatory, all post and railway officials are Italians, and we are just now about to settle there a large number of Italian families. One thousand families of ex combatants will be sent to South Tyrol with a view to