There is one other direction in which Austria could afford to surrender territory, without serious loss save that of prestige.  The southern portion of Tirol—­the so-called Trentino, the district round the town of Trent—­is purely Italian by race, and its union with the kingdom of Italy has long been the chief point in the programme of the Italian Irredentists or extreme Nationalists.  It is a poor and mountainous country, which belongs geographically to its southern rather than to its northern neighbour.  The pronouncedly Italian sympathies of its inhabitants have complicated the problem of government and have been a permanent source of friction between Austria and Italy.  The elaborate fortifications along the existing frontier would have to be sacrificed, but the new racial frontier could soon be made equally satisfactory from a strategic point of view.  It should then be borne in mind that at a later stage of the war an attempt may be made by Austria to buy off Italy with the offer of the Trentino.  Whether the latter would seriously consider such an offer, if made, will doubtless depend upon future events, but it is clear that Italy, if her diplomatists are sufficiently adroit, has a fair prospect of acquiring the Trentino, whichever side wins, and consequently that a much more tempting bait will be required in order to induce her to abandon her neutrality.  These two losses, the one already probable, the other hypothetical, would still leave Austria in the unquestioned position of a Great Power.  The problem of her future relations with her Balkan neighbours raises an infinitely more complicated issue.  Let us consider the Southern Slav and Roumanian questions, first separately, and then in their bearing upon each other.

Sec.6. The Southern Slav Question.—­The Southern Slav question, as has already been argued in an earlier chapter, can only be treated satisfactorily as an organic whole; and it may be taken for granted that Austria-Hungary, in the event of victory, will annex the two independent Serb kingdoms, and unite the whole Serbo-Croat race under Habsburg rule.  The task of governing them, when once she has overcome their resistance, will be one of extraordinary difficulty, and will involve a complete revision of her own standards of government and administration.  Her record and that of Hungary in the Slavonic South does not inspire one with confidence as to the result.  Moreover, it is not too much to assert that the destruction of Serb independence—­a task which the present writer unhesitatingly regards as beyond the powers of Austria—­will in no way solve the Southern Slav problem, but merely transfer its centre of gravity.  The task of Southern Slav liberation would pass to Bulgaria, and Austria-Hungary would be involved in an ever-widening field of hostilities.  Hence, even if Serbia’s independence were not now inextricably bound up with the success of the British arms, it would still be essential that every effort should