Austria-Hungary inhabited by their respective races.
Operations were comparatively straightforward in every case except that of the Southern Slavs, in which the secret Treaty of London of April, 1915, presented a serious obstacle. At the beginning of 1918 few people realised the difficulties thus created, but since the cessation of hostilities the "Adriatic question" has loomed largely in the public view of international relations and is rightly regarded as one of the most troublesome problems of world politics. Its bearing on propaganda lay in the fact that by this treaty Great Britain, France and Russia had promised to Italy certain Austrian territories inhabited by Southern Slavs. These territories, moreover, provided trading access to the sea and were of the highest economic value to any Southern Slav state which might be formed. So long as that treaty was regarded by the Southern Slavs as representing Allied policy, it was difficult to persuade them that Allied sympathies were with them or that the Allies would secure for them the economic interests necessary to the establishment of the united Southern Slav state peopled by the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
With the object of creating a counterpoise
