Fortification Works on the Tonale and Reflections on Tyrolean Border Defence

= From the Adige, 3 September. As I hear, the fortification works on the Tonale are on the verge of completion. It is thanks to the lessons of the past year that a more watchful eye has been turned to the border defence of our land than was the case in the tranquility of the years of peace. To be sure, thrift in military expenditures was not noticeable back then, and the sums spent on the Stelvio road and the Franzensveste fortress seem at least to demonstrate the importance attached to the military significance of Tyrol; nevertheless, border security was addressed insufficiently. The numerous passes and valley mouths which pierce the belt of mountains facing Lombardy on our south-western flank lacked, with few exceptions, any effective protection against hostile incursions. Nor was much thought given to making this flank more accessible for military reinforcements. These shortcomings could not escape the discerning eye of the aged field marshal, and it is reportedly he who has revived the once-conceived project of a connecting road via the Mendel and the Tonale. According to the plan, it would be built with the assistance of the military, and the cost estimate would amount to the modest sum of 300,000 gulden. Steps are already being taken, as is assured, toward the serious realization of this plan. It seems high time indeed to turn attention to these matters now, while the memory of what was experienced and the importance of the subject are still vivid before our eyes. In the comfortable security of peace, one so easily forgets the possible return of warlike distress and regrets too late the neglect that claims a hundred times more victims than timely precautions would have demanded. While it is to be wished that the eyes of the province and the government turn to this momentous question of border defence with the earnest intention of swift execution, attention must likewise be drawn to the necessity of not merely taking isolated measures, but of subjecting the entire system of defence to a thorough examination and redesign according to a unified plan. Apart from the militia system (Schützenwesen), which ought to be rebuilt from the ground up with regard to the new conditions and the need for a popular defence institution—such as may perhaps only be established in our land with its virtues and free of the defects of modern theory—particular consideration should be given to fortifying the above-mentioned line from the Vinschgau to the Judicaria at all those points where the mountains do not form a sufficient protective wall, as this proves to be the most vulnerable side of the land. In order, however, to be able to entrust its guarding with confidence to the defensive strength of the land, care must be taken that the reinforcement troops, who should remain in the field for as short a time as possible, reach the threatened points in the shortest time. The past year, in which, despite all the readiness of the inhabitants even in the more distant parts of the land, relief might easily have arrived too late, should have underscored in this respect as well the desirability of new means of communication. There is no doubt that the overriding arguments of national economic interest, like those of higher strategy, will prevail over the difficulties and reservations that have hitherto stood in the way of building a railway line through our land. This would indeed address the above-mentioned need in the most expedient manner. When our borders are fortified and the able-bodied youth trained in peace stands ready to be carried to the battlefield at the first whistle of the roaring locomotive, we may look with confidence upon the possibility of events resembling those recently experienced. Considering that the rail routes to Venice are already in operation from Verona, that the imperial colours fly once more in that city, and that peace throughout the extent of the empire is not far off, the thought of a Tyrolean railway should not appear as chimerical as it seems to have become since the projects that surfaced two years ago faded in the clamour of revolution and war. Yet I intended merely to offer a few remarks on our defence question, and in doing so enter the field of political economy; this is, however, merely proof of how intimately intertwined the interests of a people's prosperity and its internal and external freedom are.