The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-04-12

Germans, but unless the Paris confer
ence returns to Its original decision, 1t
is possible to expect Bolshevisln in
Warsaw as 1t is now in Budapest, as 1t
Is expected in Vienna, as it is threat
ened in Rumania.
Not less difficult is the question of
Fiume. Here President Wilson is
standing squarely, rightly against
the bestowal Of this port upon the Ital-
ians, with the consequent deprivation
OF, the new J~ugo;slavio state of its
chief gateway on the sea. The Italians
have twice threatened to quit the Paris
conference II they did not receive
Fume. There Is now a strong move
ment on foot to borrow the proposed
compromise as to Dantzig and make
Fiume another international free port.
Both Of these compromises are obvi-
ously calculated, not to make perma-
nent peace, but to insure a later dis
pute. Both represent the inability of
the Paris conference to take a strong
position and hold 1t. In both President
Wilson at the outset accepted the view
Of the expert commissioners. In both
he supported primarily the claims Of the
small nations to existence. He still
stands by the Jugo-Slavs, but, like all
other members Of the Paris conference,
he has been led away from a Dantzig
settlement by that wave of apprehen-
sion following the Hungarian revolution,
a wave of emotion cleverly employed
by the German orators to serve their
W interests.
Radicals March on.
In tho meantime Bolshevism marches
from success to success. The British in
Archangel are facing disaster, . the
French have evacuated Odessa, the
Crimea Is about to be abandoned and
a real decline in the appeal Of the
league OF nations in Paris, a decline
which Is one Of the considerable cir
| cumstances of the last three weeks,
has been the realization that even when
constituted the league Of nations has
no power to restore peace In the world,
because 1t would have no power to re-
press anarchy on the march. The fall
ure Of the conference of peace, which is
the league Of nations in it's first stage,
to adopt toward Bolshevism such a pol
Icy as would restore peace in the world,
has been to destroy the prestige of the
league of nations as a peace bringing
document. The feeling In Paris today
on all sides Is that the league of ma
lions document, when 1t is signed, will
remain no more than a document, be-
| cause 1t provides no power and no way
to deal with B~olshevism, The failure
Of The Hague conference in the pres
ence of Germany in arms and in peril,
discredited the earlier machinery for
promoting world peace. The failure of
the Paris conference in the presence of
anarchy out for conquest has had a
similar effect.
There are those who believe here nov
that we are close to an agreement upon
the terms of peace. There Is real indi-
cations that progress has been made in
the last few days toward a provisional
settlement of the terms Of peace, so far
as affects reparations, western frontiers
and the Saar coal region of Germany,
But no one of these agreements is yet
final, and many questions like Poland
and Fiume remain in the way of a
| prompt adjustment of claims against
Germany. The situation has at least
specifically improved. The tension be-
| tween Lloyd George and President Will
son has at least momentarily lessened.
About five months after the signing of
the armistice, terms Of peace are not
| yet drafted, and obstacles in the way
Of such drafting remain considerable.
WEAKNESS, impatience, anger are be-
ing more and more expressed in British
and French papers over delays, The
Paris conference has lost prestige in
| Europe. The American representatives
have lost the popular confidence in no
| small measure, and the consciousness of
this change is everywhere visible. 1t
still remains to be seen whether the
| distinguished statesmen who direct the
proceedings OF the Paris conference can
escape from the pit into which they
have fallen.
| CCopyright, 1919, by the Mcclure News
OAOer SyndiCate,O