New Britain herald., 1919-04-24
WILSON EXPLAINS
STAND ON FIUME
Says America Is Italy's Friend,
But Cannot Give Over City

Paris. April 24.--~Preside Wilson
has issued the following statement
setting forth his stand on the Fiume
question:
In view OF the capital importance
or the questions affected, and in or
der to threw all possible light upon
what is involved In their settlement,
| hope that the following staten nt
will contribute to the final forma-
ton OF opinion and to a satisfa Glory
solution.
When Italy entered the war she
entered upon the basis of definite,
private understanding with Great
Britain and France, now known as
the Pact Of London. 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 the Pact of London
vas to be kept in the event of vic
tory, has gone to pieces and no longer
exists. Not only that, but the several
parts OF that empire, 1t is agreed now
by italy and all her associates, are
to be erected into independent states
and associated in League or Ma
tons. not with those who were rer
Gently cur enemies, but with Italy
herself and the powers that stood
with Italy in the great war for liberty.
1--WE are to establish their liberty
as we'll as our own. They are to be
among the smaller states whose in
terests are henceforth to be safe
guarded as scrupulously as the i'll
terests Of the most powerful states.
THE war was ended, moreover, by
proposing to Germany an armistice
and peace which should be founded
on certain clearly defined principles
which set up a new order of right
and Justice. Upon those principles
the peace with Germany has been
conceived, not only, but formulated.
Upon those principles 1t will be exc
cuted. We cannot ask the great body
of powers to propose and effect. peace
with Austria and establish new
basis OF Independence and right in
the states which originally consti-
tuted the Austro- H i'm rian empire
and In the states Of the Balkan group
on principles of another kind. We
must apply the same principles to
the settlement of Europe In those
peace with Germany. It was upon
the explicit avowal of those princi-
! pies that the initiative for peace was
taken. It Is upon them that the
whole structure OF peace must rest.
! "If those principles are to be ad-
, hered to Fiume must serve as the out
let of the commerce not of Italy but
Of the land to the north and north
east of that port: Hungary, Bohemia,
Rumania, and the states of the new
Jugo- Slay group. To assign Fiume
to Italy would be to create the feeling
that we have deliberately put the
port upon which all those countries
chiefly depend for their access to the
| Mediterranean In the hands of pow
| err of which 1t did not form an in
| tegral part and whose sovereignty, if
! set up there, must inevitably seem
foreign. not domestic or identified
with the commercial and industrial
life Of the region which the port must
| serve. 1t is for that reason, no doubt,
that Fiune was not included In the
| Pact Of London, but there definitely
assigned to the Croatians
And the. reason why the line of
the Pact OF London swept about many
OF the islands Of the eastern coast
Of the Adriatic and around the por-
| ton of the Dalrnatian coast, which
lies most open to that sea was not
only that here and there on those
islands, and here and there on that
coast, there are bodies of people Of
Italian blood and conn ection, but also.
and no doubt, chiefly because it was
felt that it was necessary for Italy
to have foothold amidst the chan
nels 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
exists. It is proposed that the fortifi-
cations which the Austrian govern
nent constructed there shall be RACED
and permanently destroyed.
"nt is part also of the new plan of
European order which centers in the
League Of Nations that the new
states erected there shall accept a linz
| ttatien of ornaments, which puts ag-
! erosion out of the question. There
can be no fear of the unfair treat
| naent OF groups Of Italian people there,
because adequate guarantees will be
given, under International sanction, OF
the equal and equitable treatment of
all racial or national n1inorities.