Evening star., 1919-03-25

guarantees will take fifty to hun
dred years to fulfill men like Marshal
Foch have come out openly for annex
alton or at least the permanent occu-
patton by French troops of territory
which is populated entirely by Ger
mans. Rather than submit to this. the
Ebert cabinet in Germany may find
Of the Russians after Brest-Litovsk.
an attitude of passive non-resistance.
but whether this will be sufficient to
stay the bolshevist movement is a
moot question.
italian Agreement.
The next article that is causing con-
Germ is in the Italian agreement with
France, and Great Britain and Rus
sia. which says, in part:
Under the imminent treaty of peace
Italy must receive the district OF
Trentino. the entire southern Tyrol,
to the River Brenner, the city and
suburbs of Trieste, all of 1stria to
Quarnero. including Volosca, and the
Istrian Islands of ChYrso and Lussino
tand some smaller islands). In the
same manner Italy is to receive the
province of Dalmatia in it's present
FORM" etc, etc.
Inasmuch as most of these names
were unfamiliar to American readers.
the significance of the article passed
unnoticed. but the disturbances be-
tween the Jugoslavs who are clamor-
ing for an outlet to the sea through
the port of Fiume, while the Italians
insist that practically everything on
the east side of the Adriatic that is
of value must be ceded to them, arise
from this secretly made treaty. That is
why SO much unrest exists in the
southern part of Europe today.
Friends of the allied cause have al
ways attempted to explain away these
treaties by saying offers of territory
had to be made to get Italy into the
war or to catch the smaller neutrals
like Rumania. Great Britain's part in
signing them is usually explained on
the ground that she had no alternative
at the time. Russia, under Sazanoff,
was pressing for Constantinople and a
general division of expected spoils was
going on
Holds Treaties Vitiated. =.
But Great Britain's position, as ex-
pressed by unofficial spokesmen, is
that acceptance by all the allies of
President Wilson's fourteen points
vitiates those secret treaties, because
the points declare absolutely for open
covenants as well as for a definition
of boundaries along recognizable lines
of nationality. Germany and Austria
accepted the fourteen points as basis
Tor peace, and the allies in their note
granting an armistice did the same
with reservations only on reparation
and freedom of the seas
The British argue that acceptance
of the fourteen points was a pledge
and that this action automatically
abrogated all previous agreements
about the division of territory. Italy
declares that. whether those treaties
were secret or not, they are sacred
and that Great Britain and France
must stand by them. Italy. of course.
comedies the right of the United
States to ignore the treaties, because
America was not in the European war
at the time and did not commit her.
self to any pact with the allies when
she did enter the conflict. always pre-
ferring the term associate to "ally."
The big question is: Will the United
States, as the price of her signature
to the peace treaty, demand the abro-
CATION Of the secret treaties? Frank
II. Simonds. cabling from Paris on
March 20. confirms by events and in