The Washington herald., 1919-04-24
WILSON'S DIRECT APPEAL s
TOTAL Y FOR APPROVAL, :
TURNS DOWN DELEGATES
President Wilson'S Statement
Firmly Against Halys CLAIM,

Paris, April 2a-President Will
sons statement on the Adrfatic
question follows In detail:
In view Of the capital import
anee Of the questions affected. and
in order to throw all possible light
on what IL involved in their set
tlement, hope that the following
statement will contribute to the
final formation OF opinion to a
satisfactory solution. When Italy
entered the war. she entered upon
the basis of a definite. private un-
derstanding w.. Great Britain
and France. now known as the
Pact of London.
CIrcumstanees Altered.
"Since that time the whole face
of circumstances has been altered.
Many other powers. great and
small. have entered the struggle,
with no knowledge of that private
understanding.
'-The Austro-Hungarian empire.
then the enemy OF Europe, and at
whose expense tne pact of London
was to be kept in the event Of vic
tory, has gone to pieces, and no
longer exists.
mot only that The several
parts OF that empire, it is now
agreed by Italy and al her associ-
ates, are to be erected into inde-
pendent states, and associated in
a league Of nations. not with those
who were recently our enemies, but
with Italy herself. and the powers
that stood with Italy in the great
war for liberty.
I'VE are to establish their liberty
as we would our own. They are TO
be among the smaller states whose
interests are henceforth to be
scrupulously safeguarded as the
interests of the most powerful
states
The war was ended, more
over. by proposing to Germany
an armistice and peace which :
should be founded on certain
ciesrly defined principles which
should set up a new order OF
right and justice. Upon those
principles the peace with Ger
many has been conceived, not
only. but formulated
Upon those principles it will
be executed.
Conditions Have Changed.
1--WE cannot ask the great
body of powers TO propose and
enect peace with Austria and
establish a new basis of inde-
pendence and right in the
states which originally consti-
tuted the Austro-Hungarian
empire and in the states of the
Balkan group on principles of
another kind. We must apply
the same principles to the set
tlement of Europe in those
quarters that we applied in the
peace with Germany.
"It was upon the explicit avowal
Of those principles that the in
itiative for peace was taken. 1t
is upon them that the whole
structure Of peace must rest
"If those principles are to he
adhered to, Fiume must serve as
the outlet and inlet OF commerce,
not of Italy, but of the lands TO
the north and northeast of that
and the states of the new Jugo-
Slavic group.
ITO assign Fiume to Italy would
be to create the feeling that we
had deliberately put the port.
upon which all these countries
chiefly depend for their access 10
the Mediterranean. in the hands
of a power of which II did not
orm an integral part. and who's
sovereignty. il set up there, must
inevitably seem foreign, not do
mestic or identified with the COM
mercial and industrial life of the
regions which the port must serve.
Must Have Foothold.
ut is for that reason. no doubt,
that Fiume WAS NOT included In
the Pact of London. but there def1-
nitely assigned to the Croatians.
And the reason why the line of
the Pact of Loncon swept about
many of the Islands of the eastern
coast of the Adriatic and around
the portion of the Dalmatiau coast
which lies most open to that sea
was not only that here and there
on those islands and here ard
there on that coast there are bod
les of people of Italian blood and
connection, but also-and, no
doubt. chiehy-because it was felt
that IT was necessary for Italy
to have a foothold amongst the
channels of the eastern Adriatic
in order that she might make her
own coasts safe against the naval
aggression of Austria Hungary,
But Austria-Hungary no longer
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