Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1919-04-30

mand."
Paris, April Pain a statement is
sued by President Wilson explaining
his position on the Adriatic question
he declares that Fiume cannot be-
come part of Italy. The text of the
statement follows
"In view of the capital Importance
of the questions affected, and in or
der to throw all possible light upon
what is involved in their settlement,
l hope that the following statement
will contribute to the final formation
of opinion and to a satisfactory solu-
ton.
when Italy entered the war she en-
tered upon the basis of a definite pri-
vate understanding with Great Britain
and France, now known as the pact of
London. Since that time the whole
face of circumstances has been al
tered. Many other powers, grea. and
small, have entered the struggle with
no knowledge of that private under
standing.
''The Austro-Hungarian empire, then
the enemy of Europe, and at whose
expense the pact of London was to
be kept in the event of victory, has
gone to pieces and no longer exists.
Not only that, but the several parts of
that empire, ii Is agreed now by Italy
and all her associates, are to be erect
ed into Independent states and asso-
ciated in league of nations, not with
those who were recently our enemies,
but with Italy herself and the powers
that stood with Italy in the great war
for liberty.
1--WE are to establish their liberty
as well as our own. They are to be
among the smaller states whose inter-
ests are henceforth to be safeguarded
as scrupulously as the interests of
the most powerful states.
"The war was ended, moreover, by
proposing to Germany an armistice
and peace which should be founded
on certain clearly defined principles
which set up new order of right and
justice. Upon those principles the
peace with Germany has been con-
ceived. not only, but formulated. Upon
those principles it will be effected
"We cannot ask the great body of
powers to propose and effect peace
with Austria and establish new basis
of independence and right in the states
which originally constituted the Aus
tro-Hungarian empire and in the states
of the Balkan group on principles of
another kind. We must apply the same
principles to the settlement of Europe
in those quarters that we have applied
in the peace with Germany.
SIT was upon the explicit avowal of
those principles that the initiative for
peace was taken. 1t is upon them that
the whole structure of peace must rest
IF those principles are to be adj
hered to Fiume must serve as the out
let of the commerce, not of Italy. but
of the land to the north and northeast
of that port; Hungary, Bohemia, Rou-
mania and the states of the new Jugo-
Slav group. To assign Fiume to Italy
would be to create the feeling that we
have deliberately put the port upon
which all those countries chiefly de-
pend for their access to the Mediter-
ranean in the hands of a power of
which it did not form an integral part
and whose sovereignty, If set up there
must inevitably seem foreign, not do
nestle or identified with the CONNER
cial and industrial life. of the regions
which the port must serve. II is for
that reason, no doubt. that Fiume was
not included in the pact of London,
but there definitely assigned to the
Croatians.
"And the reason why the line of the
pact of London swept about many of
the islands on the eastern coast OF the
Adriatic and around the portion of the
Dalmatian coast which lies most open
TO the sea was not only that here and
there on those islands, and here and
there oh that coast. there are bodies
of people OF Italian blood and connec-