Republican farmer., 1919-08-15
BALKAN STATES
 CONDITION IS
 GROWING WORSE Anarchy Seen in Various Sections Delays Final Peace Adjustments. YS HUNGARIAN RULE REALLY DEMOCRATIC? Each State Seems Inclined
 to Defy Orders of Allied Council.

l Washington, Aug. 13.-Advices ! from Frank Polk, under secretary of | state and chief of the American dele ! gatfon to the peace conference, indi- | cate that there is scant hope of the | conference being able to clean up by l Oct. 1 ths remaining work for it to l do. It was Mir. Folks anticipation 1 expressed on the eve of his sailing | from New York, that it would be DOS | sible about that date to turn over l whatever questions were still unset ! tied to the executive council of the l league of nations for final adjustmen 1 But since his arrival in Paris affairs | III Eastern Europe and Asia Minor l have gone from bad to worse.
 | Roumania's defiance of the confer 1 ence in persisting in the military oc- 1 cupation of Budapest is merely typi- 1 cal of the growing spirit of lawless- | ness which is the dominant factor in 1 practically every country beyond the | Alps. The unavoidable demobiliza- l tion of the entente armies due to | home exigencieS and the withdrawal | of the immense American forces from | Europe are regarded as the outstand- 1 ing reasons for the tendency to dis | regard the orders of the conference 1 Another reason is the policy of play | ing off the smaller allies against each | other which has been adopted by | Italy since she persisted in the folly | of openly antagonizing the British, | French and American governments. | Diplomats here would give a good l deal to know whether Roumania had anything to do with the setting up of | the Archduke Joseph's government | in Hungary. The Archduke's procia- ! nation of assumption of power came | with startling abruptness after the ! occupation of Budapest by the Rou- | manian army. At the leasr, IL is | said in diplomatic circles, the Rou- 1 manians might have check-nated the l archduke's plans had they elected to. | Manifestly therefore, they were con- I tent that he should take up the task | where Bela, Kun left off.
 l The Burning Question | The burning question of the moment | here is the honesty of the new Hun | garian governments claims to de- mocracy. The ruth seems to be that ] the administration does not know | what to make of the situation. Con servative people suggest that it is a good thing to have an undeniably | conservative government in Budapest | as a preventative against a recurrence | of Bolshevisrn. The liberal sentiment | on the other hand, holds that a gov l ernmept headed by a monarchist may l be expected to stir up dfscontent
 against the Hungarian peasants. To | make the situation more complex, | Italy, which looked with favor upon
 the Roumanian defiance for the l peace conference, has been much | alarmed by the latest Roumanian pol i icy of toleratfon of a scion of the | FIapsburgs
 It would be difficult to say just 1 how much of the trouble confront | ing the conference Italy is responsf- | ble for, in whole or in part. Then, | too, candor compels the statement | that even if Italy had not been mak- | ing trouble her own account, the | conference would have plenty of mas l ty problems to solve.
 Nitti Working Cautiously
 | Italy has been frankly dissatisfied | with the treatment she received at 1 the hands of her principal allies in | the making of rewards for services
 in the war. The OrlanCo ministry undertook a policy of obtaining Ital- i ian ends by threats of withdrawal l from the conference and of forcible
 seizure of the territories claimed. AS | @ consequence the Orlando ministry
 fell. The Nitti cabinet has been much | more circumspect. It is still trying g to attain ItaIy's maximum preten- | sions, but it is working by diplomatic | means beneath the surface of affairs.
 Italy's policy now is to play the am- i bitions and animosities of Greece, Ser | bia, and Roumania, against each | other, with view thereby to advanc- ing her own purposes. Thus, in Al l bania she has played the Serbs l against the Greeks. and the A1banians | against both, to improve her claims | for a mandate for the Moslem prin-
 cipality that she hopes to have es-
 abolished.
 i In Asia Minor she has worked
 against the Greeks to further her own cause there, and to support that
 cause she has put up the bluff of 1 resting Greek claims in Thrace | Likewise, to offset the Jugo-Slav
 Prussian on the Dalnatian coast and
 at Plume, she has not scrupled to
 incite the Roumanians to hostility to
 the Serbian claims in the much-in- :
 vo1ved Banat of Temesvar, one ot
 the most complex ethnographica1 pug
 zles in Europe, Roumanian troops
 have just occupied Temesvar, despite
 the terms of the armistice with Au-
 stria-Hungary and the orders of the | peace conference, which has not yet | passed judgment on the conflicting | statistics represented by Serbs, Mag | vars and Roumanians in this region. In Montenegro also Italy has been | intriguing against Serbia on behalf
 of the old King Nicholas, father in
 law of King Victor Emanuel and l pensioner of the Italian crown, as well as for the purpose of extending
 the boundaries of the reborn Albania,
 which she expects to control under the League of Nations.
 I