TN the near future, much detailed and careful attention will be given to the -*numerous problems associated with political boundaries in Europe. While it is impossible at this stage to forecast the precise character of the framework of the Continental States after this War, it may be assumed that a political organization approximating to that which existed in pre-war days will be established. In some cases, the re-establishment of political boundaries will be a comparatively easy matter but in others there will be great difficulty in defining boundaries which will be mutually satisfactory to the peoples most closely concerned. In particular, there will probably be long and protracted negotiations over the delimitation of boundaries in those areas which do not readily lend themselves to a settlement. Unfortunately for the statesmen who will be responsible for the political set-up of Europe after the War, there are several areas which may be regarded as frontier regions within which the satisfactory establishment of linear boundaries will call for all the knowledge, patience, and wisdom available. Such a frontier region exists at the head of the Adriatic Sea. It has for centuries been a zone of strain between opposed ethnic, economic, and political interests which in the past have been irreconcilable. Few areas in Europe have been so consistently disputed, both on the battlefield and at the conference table, and it is difficult to find an example wherein boundary changes have been more frequent or where the problem of paying due regard to the interests and wishes of the people who constitute the majority of its inhabitants has presented more difficulty. At the very outset of a study of this disputed territory, we are confronted with a difficulty of terminology which is symptomatic of the complicated history of the region. No generally accepted name for this area is to be found in textbooks or atlases. The ancient Italian Friuli is restricted to that eastern part of the Padano-Venetian Plains which ends at the Isonzo. The almost equally ancient Slav name Krn (Krain, Carniola) has always been limited in its application in the north-west by the crest line of the Julian Alps although at times the territory which bears this name has reached the Gulf of Trieste. 4