Evening star., 1919-05-13
WORLDS LASTING PEACE LIES
IN DECISIONS YET TO BE MADE
If Race Rivalries Are Unsettled, Action
at Paris, It Is Declared, Will Sow
New Crop of War.

concert of Europe at the congress OF
Berlin because that decision did in
justice to men of their own races
these same people will refuse to ac-
cept any decision of the league of na-
tions which gives Slavs to Italy, Ru-
nanlans to Hungary or Greeks to
Bulgaria. Yet such has been the in
credible short-sightedness of Paris
mat all possible rivalries have been
permitted to grow and expand Ru-
mnnlans and Serbs are uuarrelins
over Banat; Bohemians and Poles
over Teschen; Italians and Jugo
Slavs over Fiume, while the problems
iof Bulgaria remain unsettled
If we shall in subsequent negotia- =
t1ons: which will liquidate the old
Hapsburg and Osmanli empires in
!; Europe. build real states. We shall
put seventy millions of liberty-lov-
ing people, capable of defending
German expansion eastward or south
ward. We shall restore the balance
OF power Ia Europe. abolished when
Russia feIl, and we shall do much
more. We shall bring satisfaction to
millions of D-ople who hitherto have
never accepted any European set
tlement. because no European settle
ment has taken cognizance of their
just rights.
Most Difficult of All Tasks.
No more difficult task ever con-
fronted the statesmanship of the
world. The statesmen who made I'D
the congress of Vienna could settle
the question at issue between France
and the rest of Europe, but they
could not reorganize eastern and
southern Europe. The congress of
Berlin could prevent war between
Russia and Britain and Austria. but
1t could not erect stable edifce in
the balkans, and its failure in the
Balkans produced the world war, just
as the failure of the congress of
Nienns to do justice in the Italian
peninsula, produced the series of wars
which resulted in the liberation of
Italy: only complete when Trieste and
the Trentlno are added to the do
minions OF the house of Savoy.
And beyond lie the two great prob
lens of Russia and Asia Minor. Con-
Stantinople remains what it has al
ways been, challenge to statesman
ship. There is the Armenian, the Turk
ish, the Syrian and the Greek prob
lem in Asia Minor. How shall one
divide races which are thus inextrica-
bly, Joined in eternal hatredo All this
is part of the task, and a vastly i'm
portant part of the unfinished work
at Paris.
FINALLY. there is Russia. Many signs
point to rapidly approaching col
lapse of bolshevism, but after bolshe-
vism what? Will the allies seek to
restore great Russia or, following the
German example, strive to divide the
Russian empire of yesterday into half
a score of disorganized fragments !?
More than 25O,O00,000 of people will be
affected Immediately by the decision
which the conference of Paris has vet
to make. Neither the negotiators of
the treaties of Westphalia nor of the
congress of Vienna faced anything
like as grave and complex problems.
affecting as many millions of people.
as now confront the statesmen gath
cred here in Paris. In serving their
peace terms upon Germany they have
made only a beginning. What is to
come may possibly prove ten times as
important for the peace of the world
Copyright. 1919. Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate. }