The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-07-12

to half a million in number, they
seem resigned to losing in any case.
If the Western Allies recognize Serb
ian claims and fail to accept Ruman-
ian claims in Bessarabia, Rumania
will make an alliance with Italy.
which has a dispute with the Jugo-
Slavs on her hands. Moreover Bull
garia. despite her quarrel with Ru.
mania over the Dobrudja, might easily
be placated by promise of the Mace
DOMAIN territory she has waged three
wars to acquire. and then we should
have an we Balkan problem on our
hands at once. To suppose that the
western powers would go to war again
to save Serbia is to suppose the i'm
possible. but this is exactly what
would be necessary, II the league of
nations were to be preserved at all.
Then there is the dispute between
the Poles and the Czecho-Slovaks
over Teschen, tiny territory, i'm
mensely rich in minerals, lying be-
tween Polish and Czech peoples at
the headwaters of the Oder and the
Vistula. A majority Of the population
is Polish, but the Czechs have an eco
nomic necessity to possess the land.
at least they allege such a necessity,
and the Paris conference once con-
coded it to them. Then it repented.
Now the question is open again. with
the two Slav peoples at daggers
drawn. To give it to one would be
to ALLEVIATE the other, to establish a
separate state under the guarantee of
the League of Nations would be to
ALLEVIATE both and erect an indefen-
sible state, one more indefensible
state in Europe, without any desire
for independence, and with absolutely
NO means Of defending it's unsought
independence or receiving aid from
the nations which would thus create
it.
To sum up, then, the allies, with
our assistance, must give Poland an
eastern frontier, since they have rec
ognized its right to exist. To do this
they must assign Russian territory to
Poland, yet it is of utmost importance
that they do not ALLEVIATE Russian nat
ional sentiment, drive a restored Rus.
STA into German arms. The same
problems must be faced in dealing
with Finland, the Baltic provinces.
Lithuania, while there is also grave
danger incident to alternating the
Poles, the Lithuanians, the peoples of
the Baltic provinces and the Czecho-
Slovaks, as each or all feel their
own rights. under the Fourteen
Points, abridged by the necessities Of
the great powers.
Rumanian Question Difficult.
There remains an almost equally
ticklish puzzle, which we may call the
Rumanian question. The new Ru
mania is shaped something like a
square, and on each of its four sides
it has a near-war in progress. On
the east 1t disputes with the Ukrain-
ians, and thus with the territory once
comprising the Russian province of
Bessarabia. On the north it is at
odds with Hungary over vast area
of Rumanian speaking lands, which it
has taken in recent months. On the
south there is the old quarrel with
Bulgaria, over all the Dobrudja in gen.
eral and the southern Dobrudja in par
ticular. On the west there is a new
quarrel with the Serbs over the west
ern fringe of the Banat.
For the western powers to recognize
Rumanian claims to Bessarabia would
be to ALLEVIATE Russian opinion. pre-
cisely as in the north. But to fail to
recognize Rumanian claims would be
to deny the Fourteen Points, since the
people are Rumanian and have al
ready self-determined themselves as
such, and even more serious, to allie
nate the Rumanian nation, which is
destined to be one Of the great powers
of the future in Europe larger in area
than the mainland of Italy and Ca
pable Of sustaining at least as large
1of nm n 10 10
| claim denied, she will unquestionably
renounce her association with the
western powers. So much she has
already threatened to do.
| But if the Serbs are denied their
part of the Banat, if this injury is
added to the wrong, the palpable
wrong already done in the hinterlands
of Trieste, where half million Slavs
have been turned over to Italy, and to
the probable wrong to be done, under
the terms of the Anglo-French-1talia
secret treaty affecting Dalmatia, then
we shall have exactly the same menace
to world peace that Serbia consti
tuted from the congress of Vienna
down to the assassination of Serajevo
when the whole world was embroiled
Moreover, Italy and Rumania, two
Latin states, with strong sympathies
and a common enemy, might easily
find a basis of agreement with Ger
many, looking for allies and neces
sarily prepared to trade upon the diff
ferences and profit by the mistakes
Of the Paris peace conference.
Greek Complication
There is also a Greek complication
to be reckoned with. The Greeks ano
Serbs have a treaty Of alliance agains,
the Bulgarians, and Greece claims the
old Aegean coast Of Bulgaria in west
ern Thrace. In addition Greece has
a quarrel with the Italians, affecting
northern Epirus, the Dodecanesus Is
lands with Rhodes, and the western
shore Of Asia Minor including Smyrna