Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/7½
Professor A. C. Coolidge to Professor W. E. Lunt, of the Commission to Negotiate Peace
Dear Lunt: I am afraid that the question of getting some evidence with regard to the present national tendencies of the Ladins is a rather special one. It would take much time on the part of some one particular person, who ought to go into the Ladin district and talk with the people as much as the authorities would let him. When I have scattered my crowd to their various posts I shall have only a few left here, and they would be obliged to confine themselves to pretty broad general subjects of current interest. I shall tell them, however, to keep the Ladin question in mind. The only contribution of my own that I have to offer is that among the Tyrolese delegates who [Page 237] visited me the other day there was a representative from the Ladin region. He told me that his people speak Ladin in their daily life but that many of them knew German (and some of them Italian), and that they lived on the best of terms with their German neighbors, indeed they had always done so, and had no desire to be detached from them now. He and others have emphasized the fact that Ladin is an independent language, not a dialect of Italian, and that even if it is akin to Italian this is no reason why the people who speak it should be united to Italy when they prefer Austria. Of course the feeling of the people may be quite different, and especially in these times of confusion and uncertainty the Ladins may want to join the winning side. I give the above statements for what they are worth.
Hoping that all goes well with you, I remain
Yours very truly,