Deputies in Rome

President: The Hon. Wilfan has the floor.

Wilfan: Honourable colleagues, I must first make a declaration similar to the one already made by the deputy of the German group. The group of Slav deputies elected in our provinces formally declares: “The Slav deputies have and assert the right to use their own language in the exercise of their functions, especially when speaking in the Chamber. This right exists without explicit recognition, because it is the condition and consequence of the most elementary freedom of deputies and electors, and because its use is the most direct and legitimate expression of their inviolable national consciousness and dignity. It exists also because Article 62 of the Statute expressly recognises it for French to deputies and senators from places where that language is spoken; it must therefore, by inescapable analogy, be recognised also for the Slav language and for the representatives of places where it is spoken, which were annexed to the Kingdom only after the Statute was proclaimed. The Slav deputies therefore trust that this right of theirs will be expressly recognised. In that expectation, but with the reservation that they will use their own language whenever they see fit, we shall for the time being express our thoughts in Italian.”

Honourable colleagues! I must confess that I hesitate in taking the floor in this assembly for the first time as representative of the Slav populations now annexed to the Kingdom. Our situation is among the most delicate. We belong to a people that not long ago finally created its own national state. We are bound to that people by common origin, language, feelings and tradition; we cannot deny this natural, indissoluble unity. On the other hand, we know that we have become citizens of the Kingdom of Italy. Between the duty of citizens in the political sense and national feeling in the ethnic sense there is a conflict. We shall seek a way out of this conflict. And we believe that it is precisely in the Italian parliament that we shall find men who will understand us, if we frankly profess here our national feelings and our conception of nationality and nationalism. (Approval.)

For us the state is not the highest entity; the highest is the people, the nation, I repeat, in the ethnic and historical sense. Only in this sense are we nationalists, and not nationalists like those, it seems to me, who in this hall pride themselves on that name. The nationalism I reject with all my heart is not nationalism, not love of one's own people, but imperialism; it is hatred, not love. (Comments.) With such nationalism we have nothing in common, and I insist on this because I know that our compatriots of Italian nationality in the annexed lands especially will reproach us again and again with imperialist nationalism. For myself, for my colleagues and for all our population I expressly deny it. (Comments.)

Although, then, we feel ourselves in opposition to the Italian state, because it annexed us against our will and against our aspirations, we do not feel ourselves in opposition to the Italian people (approval on the left), whom, I can affirm here with a clear conscience and ask that it be recorded, the Slovenes and Croats now annexed to Italy do not hate. They do not hate the Italian people.

I welcome this first occasion on which a representative of the Slav populations no longer has to speak with commissioners, with carabinieri, at most with ministers or heads of office, but at last speaks with the sons elected by the Italian people. (Approval.) I am sure that, speaking directly, openly and sincerely, if we cannot love one another, we shall respect one another. (Interruptions from the extreme right.)

For us I claim above all the right to speak freely and sincerely, to open our souls to you completely, with all they hold of national feeling, pain, sorrow and resentment. There is no other way to meet and understand one another than sincerity. Diplomats may follow other paths, but we, sons of a new age, democrats in the true sense of the word, sons of the broad masses, democratic as the Slav masses especially are, recognise only one path: that of the frank, manly word.

Let me therefore tell you in a few words in what situation the king's greeting found us; that situation dictates to us words quite different from those proposed in the reply to the speech from the throne. First we must clarify a few facts. The annexed territory, which is now called the region of Venezia Giulia …

A voice from the extreme right: Always! For centuries!

Wilfan: It is now officially called Venezia Giulia, but that is not a historical name. (Interruptions from the extreme right, noise.) In the interest of sincerity and debate I shall gladly respond to any well-founded interjection. The region, then, which to please my colleague I shall call Venezia Giulia, but which was not so called until 1854, when Graziadio Ascoli invented the name …

Voices from the extreme right: Always! Always! Since Julius Caesar! (Loud noise.)

Wilfan: … in this so-called region the majority of the population, both in number and in the extent of nationally settled territory, is Slav. This was shown, after all, by the elections too, although they were conducted to Italy's detriment, for I think it would have been far more advantageous for Italy (I do not speak of us, but of all Italy) if our entry into Italian constitutional life had not been stained by such elections, which were not political elections but a horror, a baseness, a disgrace! (Loud protests, noise on the right and in the centre, approval on the extreme left.) Something base! (Loud invective from the extreme right, protests, noise.) Our number, though reduced, should be enough to convince you that there is a strong Slav nucleus in this region. When statistics are compiled, I recommend that they be made at least as well as the Austrian ones. (Very loud noise, protests.)

President: Hon. Wilfan, I am here to guarantee freedom of speech to all, but I call on you to respect the feelings of the Italian assembly. (Very loud and prolonged applause, the galleries applaud too. Lively comments.) Continue!

Wilfan: The Slav population sent us to this hall to make contact, to speak, to reach agreement, to find the way to an existence bearable for us.

Voices: Not to provoke!

Wilfan: If my words could have any meaning that might be understood as an offence to the feelings of the Italian Chamber, which I do not admit, since I had no such intention, I ask you to take note that this happened entirely against my will. My colleague from Trieste, the lawyer Suvich, will confirm what it means to speak of statistics. I wished only to express the hope that statistics be made better than in Austrian times. (Interruptions, comments, noise.)

President: The incident is closed. Silence, please. Hon. Coda, I call you to order! Continue, Hon. Wilfan.

Wilfan: If it is true that the majority in this region is Slav …

Voices from the right: It is not true! (Comments.)

Wilfan: … this region should have gone to the Slav national state and not to the Italian one. Geographical and strategic reasons were cited which, out of respect for the fundamental principle of nationality, we cannot accept as sufficient. I shall try to be brief in summing up our thought, and allow me to read a declaration.

“The sovereignty of the Kingdom of Italy was legally extended to the lands on the northern shore of the Adriatic only by the Treaty of Rapallo and by the annexation that came into force on 5 January 1921. This happened without free and regular consent, contrary to the national character of the population, which between the Adriatic and the new borders is by a large majority not Italian but Slav. The hope proved vain that the Kingdom of Italy, founded on national unity and born of plebiscites, would in this case too respect the principle of nationality and the right of peoples to decide their own fate. The protest, which could not be more justified, and which has been sharpened by unjust treatment contrary to solemn promises, if not to formal guarantees (these, it is true, were expressly refused), can never be silenced in the hearts of the Slavs now subject to Italy. The Slav deputies are bound, at the beginning of their work, to give expression to this protest, and therefore, for the present and for all the future, they enter the corresponding formal and solemn reservation, in the name of the Slavs of the new provinces, citizens of Italy who respect the laws but remain faithful to their ideals.”

We have entered the Italian family, and every person of good will, whatever their national feeling, should have wished that this entry had happened in other circumstances, in another way. As things went from the first day of the occupation, after promises made even in public proclamations, printed at the time in the Slav language as well, we experienced instead a regime of oppression, a regime that was harsh and cruel, in sad contrast with what our people expected from the army and from the Italian people, which came into the land as a liberator. (Lively interruptions, very lively protests, noise.)

Gasparotto: Our soldiers fed you!

President: Hon. Wilfan, do not forget that the Italian army covered itself with glory! (Very lively applause.)

Giolitti, Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior: Hon. Wilfan, in the name of the government I must protest against the insult you have uttered against the Italian army. (Very lively and repeated applause, joined by the galleries. Repeated cries: Long live the army!) Hon. Wilfan, you do a very poor service to the population you represent when you give the impression that your feelings are shared by populations which we are convinced will faithfully observe the law and respect Italy, as you do not know how to respect it. (Very lively and prolonged applause.)

President: Now silence, and let him speak. — Voices: Enough! Enough!

Wilfan: Italian is not my mother tongue; if I speak it, I must admit that I do not speak it with the perfection that would be needed. When I spoke of the army, I certainly did not mean either the army as an institution or the army as a whole … (Very loud noise, interruptions. Voices: Enough! Enough!) I did not speak of the army, but of the military authorities, whose conduct I must be allowed to criticise. And to explain my thought still better and show that my criticism is well founded, let me say that when we brought our complaints to the civil authorities, they answered us: Wait; you know that the military regime is an extraordinary regime. It is a military occupation, you must bear it; wait until this extraordinary regime ends. I think I have done nothing but exercise my right. I wished to offend no one, and I regret, Mr Giolitti, that you, who are considerably older than the young colleagues of the fascio, did not with your wisdom know how to understand me. (Interruptions, accusations, noise.)

I should of course also state the complaints of our population in other respects, especially concerning economic conditions. I know we can have no illusions here, since conditions are unfavourable throughout the country and the Italian administration faces particularly difficult tasks in our lands. But here I wish to confine myself above all to the complaints concerning our national consciousness. Our national life has been suppressed from the very beginning. The use of our language is prohibited; it has been driven out of the offices. The activity of our associations is obstructed in every way; even such innocent associations as our choirs have been dissolved or at least prevented from working. Every expression of national feeling, not Yugoslav in the political but in the ethnic sense, is regarded as an expression directed against Italy. (Lively conversations, interruptions.) If you see hostility to Italy in the mere fact that Slavs live as Slavs, then you see that our complaints are justified.

Given your mood, it will be better to postpone the list of our complaints to another occasion. I see that instead of speaking frankly and sincerely, as I intended, we shall have to get used to conveying our complaints in small doses. Today let me say only this: we have heard fine words; we await deeds, and we await what the Hon. De Nicola said: that we be shown the most jealous care and the deepest respect for everything concerning our national consciousness.

The Slav deputies have the honour to make the following further declaration in the name of the Slav populations and in their own: “The Slavs who have now become Italian citizens are fully aware of their position. They know that, besides the natural unity of race, language, feeling, culture and tradition that binds them to the people of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, called together South Slavs or Yugoslavs, they are now joined to the Italian nation by the mighty bond of state unity. The new Italian citizens of Slav nationality are resolved and ready to accept all the consequences of the position so determined. Just as they have the right to demand the most jealous care and the deepest respect for everything concerning their national consciousness, so they also assume all duties, not only those imposed by the laws but also those arising from the very fact of living together in the state, and within the limits of their strength and their particular position they will cooperate in realising the common ideals of humanity, culture and moral and material progress. Since such are the intentions and disposition of their compatriots, the Slav deputies have a clearly marked path, which they will follow both in general questions and above all in protecting and promoting the particular interests entrusted to them. Through sincere and loyal, if modest, cooperation in the work of the Chamber they will strive to be worthy not only of the trust of their electors but also of the collegial feelings they hope to find here and will return with all their heart.” (Comments.)