The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-03
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(Continued from Page One)

up to much larger sum if Germany
 does not return the machinery and the 1 materials taken from Belgium. Belgium | believes that she should be paid first be- -ause she was the first to be 2d, | because her neutrality was violated and because she has suffered more from despoilation than any other country. in | the war.
 | Belgium having reasserted her inde- pendence and thus emerged from her old state of neutrality, desires from Holland the left bank of the Scheldt and the pen i insula of Maastricht which protrudes into Belgian Limburg Belgium also will assent to a plebiscite in LuXempurg to decide whether that country wishes to 1 join Belgium or France or to retain it's l autonomy.
 | The foregoing may be considered the extreme claims of Belgium. They come | into conflict with Holland. which re- sists any infringement of the frontiers | asked for by the Belgan annexatonists. The government of Holland appears will 1 ing to revise the Scheldt navigation treaty so that Belgium should enjoy equal rights with Holland.
 JAPAN
 Japan enters the peace conference, as Baron Makino the senior delegate, mas said with no territorial ambitions in China" and that as for Tsinftau she will hand it back to China under the terms of the notes exchanged between China and Japan in May, l9lo. rms IS interpreted by Japan as permitting her to retain former German concessions on the Shantung peninsula. Japan Baron Makno explains, neither intends not desires to interfere in Russian affairs. but is willing, if solicited, to aid Russia in restoring order
 These declarations dispose of two or the main questions in which Japan lS interested except that she desires to re- tain the southern Pacific islands north Of the equator which formerly belonged to Germany.
 y CHINA
 The Chinese delegates ask to be guar
 anteed against foreign imperialism or aggression and desire the gradual aboll- tion of "consular rights" and to be al lowed to impose higher duties on im- portations The Chinese also ask for the retrun of Kauchau
 SWITZERLAND
 Switzerland appears to- be the only
 neutral nation which has so( far pre- sented her desires to the peace confer
 ence The Swiss government has repre- sented that while Switzerland would be glad to participate in a society of na- tions yet because of her mixed nation alities, she could not do so if that should mean the use of her troops in policing the world by force, as, perhaps, against Italy, France of Germany.
 Switzerland desires an outlet to the sea by making the Rhine a neutral stream i This is in accord with Branch tesres, since if Asa eel lorraine becomes French from Basic northward and independent buffer states should be erected out of
 the Palatinate and Rhenish Prussia. as suggested by Marshal Foch, it would be necessary to neutraliZe the Rhine. If this were done it would give SwitZer- land an outlet to the sea.
 SCANDINAVIA | The territorial aspirations of the three Scandinavian powers are considered modest. DenmaSs wishes to annex that part of northern Schleswig inhabited pre- domnantly by Danes but has not asked to regain the provinces of Schleswig and Holsten taken from Denmark by Prus- sia in the war of 1884, or to extend her frontries southward to the Kiei canal Norway has certain aspirations to Spitzbergen or a part of it. but is not pressing their claims energetically. A strong socialist movement In Swed-
 en -favors the union with Sweden of tho Aand Islands. which are regarded by the Swedes as the naval key to Stock holm Swedish interests in this connec-
 ton are in conflict with those of Fin land. Sovereignty over the islands has
 belonged to Finland since the fall of the Russian imperial government. Noth- ing has been heard since the collapse of Germany of earlier Finnish plans to secure an outlet by the annexation of parts of Russian Carelia lying between
 Finland and the Murman coast and even of adjacent Finmark. which belongs to Norway. This contention on the part of Finland led to the landing of allied
 troops at Murman to prevent the estab- lishment of a German submarine base in the nothern seas.
 The delegates of the five powers who will stralghten out this plexus of riva. interests are obliged also to take into considerations the passionate racial claims
 as well as the history of all Europe for centuries. A CZECHO-SLOVAkS' OBLIGATION
 Paris. February 2.-The provisional agreement approved by the supreme coun-
 cl regarding the district of Teschen needs