The South Tirol Occasionally Herr Hitler seizes an opportunity to
show that, after all, he is capable of keeping his word ; the South Tirol has offered him one. Herr Hitler has repeatedly stated that the Italo-German frontier is inviolable ; now he has reached an agreement with Signor Mussolini which will lessen the glaring inconsistency between the surrender to Italy in perpetuity of the South Tirol and the principles of German racialism. The South Tirol, now the Italian province of Alto Adige, was acquired from Austria-Hungary after the Great War ; of its population of 300,000, zoo,000 are German speaking, and ro,000 are not Italian citizens. The agreement provides that the to,000 German-speaking foreigners shall be transferred to Germany, where they will be a welcome addition to the labour supply ; and the rest of the German-speaking population shall choose, though not under pressure to emigrate, between moving to Germany or to the southern Italian provinces. The frontier will thus be racially purified ; and the agreement may assuage the fears of Italians who fear that one day the predominant partner in the Axis will revive her claim to the South Tirol. * * * *
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