Evening star., 1919-11-09

to the sea-; but if they were accord
ed this it meant the inclusion of
million or more Germans within
Polish borders. which offended the
spirit of the principle of self-deter-
mination. 1t was a question of bal
ancing antagonistic considerations.
and the conferees had finally to de-
eide which mixture gave promise, on
the whole, OF the greatest future JUS
tfce and security.
settlement regarding Fiume. The
Italians took their stand upon the
principle of self-determination applied
to one small city, which controlled the
gateway of great nation of people.
who were wholly non-Italian- The
been an Italian city. that the Italians
did not need it. having the excellent
ports of Trieste and Pola not far off,
that 1t was and always had been the
natural outlet of the great back
country of the Croats, Slavs and Hun
garians and that their access to the
sea ought to be protected.
President Wilson's Decision.
The President finally made his de-
cision and talked it over with Or
lando. who objected sharply. Then he
prepared a careful statement of policy
and read 1t aloud to Clemenceau and
least made no objection to Though
when the storm rose afterward and
the lightning began to crash around
their devoted heads there were de-
malls in both British and French news
papers-not, however. directly at
trtbutable to the statesmen themselves
that they had, ever really approved
the report. But the Italians were~ob-
durate and still threatening every day
to leave the conference. They even
went SO far as to let it be known that
they had chosen train to go on In
were even reported to have reserved
their accommodations on two or three
different occasions. Every one was
trying to patch UP settlement. Lloyd
George was particularly active; and
one day I found Col. House. who was
with a group of Italians in one room
and a group of Jugoslavs in another
(they refused to meet each other) try
ing to get them united on some rea-
sonable basis Never in this world were
there such torrents and floods Of talk.
Every day we heard of new formula
of settlement" and the next heard that
it had been discarded for another. One
would have thought the whole war
had been fought over the fortunes OF
twenty odd thousands of Italians in
Fiume.
Well. the Germans had been sum
moned to Versailles for April 25.
Something had to be done. and the
President acted with characteristic
audacity and vigor. On April % he
sent down to our press bureau. by Ad-
miral Grayson. copy of his statement I
on the Italian question. We got IT at
once upon the cables and the wireless.
had it swiftly translated into French.
and that night it went to every part
of the world. It caused a tremendous
sensation-in some ways the greatest
sensation of the conference And no
one of the Presidents acts was gen.
erally so we'll received, except. OF
course, in Italy. 1t shook the peace
conference to its very foundations.
In his statement the President said
that Fiume must serve the commerce
not of Italy but OF the other lanos
to the north and northeast OF that
mort of which it had been the histori-
cal outlet; that Italy did not need
the port; that If Fiume were assigned
to Italy 'it would create the feeling
that we had deliberately put the port
upon which all these countries depend
for their access to the Mediterranean n
in the hands of power Of which 1t
did not form an integral part.
1t is for that reason, no doubt. that
Fiume was not included in the pact
of London, but was there definitely
assigned to the Croatians."
Departure of Italians.
Orlando came back with heated
statement complaining that the Presi-
dent had gone over the heads of the
Italian delegates and appealed to the
people, and condemned this as unfair.
The next ay the larger part of the
italian delegation left Paris in a
blaze of glory, and Orlando made his
report to the government at Rome
faa ho hoi ir
detection would break up the con-
ference, but the conferece continued
to move along. 1t was significant
also that while all the political dele
gates left-and left dramatically
the Italian economic Representatives.
plies of coal. iron. food and money
from the allies, quietly remained.
Every effort was made both before
and after the Italians left to change
the Presidents position. He was will
ing to accede to some genuine inter-
national control of Fiume, but beyond
that he would not go, and the Italians
would not agree to that. The Lon
don Daily News said of his action:
What is clear now is that two an
tagonistic principles, which have been
more or less veiled. have been in con-
f1ict throughout the conference and
have now met in death grapple.
One or the other must yield.
If Wilson's principles prevail, all
such claims as Italy is now advanc-
ing must be abandoned permanently"
The President never budged in his
position then or since. The treaty
with Germany was completed and
signed-and the Italians. though not
Orlando. whose government had fall
en-, were there to sign it. The prob.
lem of Fiume remains still unsolved.
though the city was seized the other
day by D'AnnunZio
In the next article the facts regard
ing the crisis at the conference over
the settlement of the Shantung uues-
ton will be presented
Copyright 1919, by United Feature Syndicate. /,
(The sixth article in the Baker series
will be published in The Evening Star
next Tuesday,