Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-05-02
WALKS and TALKS
BY JULIUS CHAMBERS
i'm the Brooklyn Eagle
PRESIDENT WILSON ON FIRM GROUND REGARDING FIUME

PRESIDENT WILSON On FlRh
The position Of President Wilson re-
garding Fiume is absolutely unassail-
able, as / hope to show by much strong
er evidence than he has sdduced in the
clear and convincing statement issued
day before yesterday at Paris. Italy
has no possible claim upon Fiume, his
torically, commercially or otherwise.
The demand for it by Premier Orlando
is an arbitrary one, because Italy never
owned it, and the treaty of London,
about which so much Of a fuss Is m ade,
gave it to Croatia, whose possession had
been recognized by Maria Theresa in
1776, and so continued, through many
disturbances, in none of which Italy
ever participated, until 1870, when it
became a coTous separatum Of the Hun
garian Crown-Hungary's only port.
The fact that it was Croatian never
was disputed for q moment!
The history of Fiume becomes inter-
esting, for the moment, as the focal
point of the Peace Congress at Paris.
Whether Premier Orlando is bluffing
in his threat to leave the Congress and
return to Rome doesn't matter a great
deal since Lloyd-G George and Clemen-
ceau have both Endorsed the attitude
assumed by Mr.. Wilson regarding
Fiume.
Every point made by the President
in his remark ably clear statement of
April % is indisputable, ven upon the
highest Italian geographical opinion.
Italy has nc more right to Fiume
than the United States has to Havana!
C~ontiguity means nothing.
To give that port to Italy would shut
out the entire western Balkan region
from the sea
The Encyclopedia Britannica (1911)
says distinctly: Geographically,
Fiume belongs to Croatia; politically,
the town, seven square miles, became
a part of Hungary in 1870"
Fiume is supposed to occupy the site
of the ancient Tersatica. 1t was des-
troyed by Charlemagne in 799, from
which time 1t long remained under the
Franks. 1t never was in Italian hands,
but passed through many Austrian
dynasties. 1T was declared q free port
by Charles vi in 1928. Its cession to
Croatia has been mentioned. The
French occupied 1t in 1909, and the
British in 1918, when, after holding it
a year, they handed it to Austria. His
tory, therefore, sustains the conten.
ton OF Mr.. Wilson.
But evidence very much stronger may
be cited. The last number of the Jour-
nal of the Royal Geographical Society
reached nae last evening, and Its lead
ing feature is an address before that
Society, February 10, ON the subject
Of THE Physical and Strategic Geog-
raphy Of the Adriatic," by Commander
Roncagli Of the Royal italian Navy.
If 1 may judge from the high praise
bestowed upon this officer by the pres
ident of the Society in introducing him,
he is n of the highest authorities in
Italy on the history of the Adriatic
Sea. The lecturer begins by paying
the highest possible compliments to the
famous Serbian geographer, Jovan
Cuiiia Uhn bod AfuOrnco6 khia voru
question of Italy's claims to Dalmsti-
al territory. The Serbian authority
does not crilicise Italy, but Command
er Roncagli very significantly says:
German geographers have long ago
tried to make physical geography Que
of the weapons with which Germany
prepared to carry out her plans of dom
mating the world. We must acknow-
ledge that they worked energeticaIly in
that direction, IL that they partially
sue eeded. One of their methods was
to bring geographical morphology to
Interfere in human affairs beyond all
rational limits" In short, the Ger
mans employed the Fichtian theory of
linguistic utilization when it would
work, and any other policy that sug-
gested itself, when neither racial nor
language claim could be advanced.
Commander Roncagli then takes up
the boundary question and very de-
cisively says: Assuming the Adri-
attic 10 be the natural boundary be-
tween the two peninsulas, we must