Note 63 — Chapter IV · BORDERLANDS OF ITALIAN LANGUAGE

Austrian census returns have been the object of frequent criticism in non-Germanic countries. The political interests of the Austrian government may have led its officials to minimize the importance of the language spoken by dissenting peoples. A tendency to overestimate the spread of German has always been suspected. A common practice consists in forming artificial administrative districts so as to create German numerical superiority within their borders. As a rule an increase of 10 per cent in the number of Slavs, Rumanians and Italians can be safely added to the figures set forth in government statistics. Conversely the same percentage may be subtracted with safety from the totals for Germans and Hungarians.