Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-02-03

| the nVe great powers are now IN
position to compare clearly their
own aspirations and those OF all
their allied friends and to see the
differences that must be recon
ciled. The desires of the several
| countries may be compressed
thus:
FRANCE,
France wants Alsace-Lorraine
unconditionally and the right to
fix the French frontiers in their
relation to the Rhine, which may
require the creation of buffer
states. One Of these would be the
Palatinate and another Rhenish
Prussia. France desires also the
Saare basin, which might be called
a remuneration.
France will insist the conference
should forbid military works of
any kind-barracks, bridgeheads,
forts and fortresses on the left
bank of the Rhine forther north.
the people of which should be free
to decide for themselves, whether
they wish to join France, form an
independent state OF return to Ger
The French bill for reparation is
not yet complete, but it has been
announced in the chamber OF dep
uties that it will be about $13, 2O0,-
100000.
The French government conSid-
ers the population of Syria is too
advanced to make a protectorate
necessary, but feels France should
n ~
ianship until Syria should be fully
able to govern herself
GREAT BRITAIN.
Great Britain's delegation be-
lieVes that a society OF nations
must be established by the present
peace conference. She advances
no continental purposes other than
those of a permanent and just
peace under the principal of self
determination, and that there shall
be international freedom of tran
sit by railroads and waterways.
Great Britain will take manda-
tory power over the German is
lands south of the equator for
Australia and over German south
west Africa for the Union of South
Africa. She will also have the
mandate over German East Africa
and some parts of Arabia and she
has particular claims in this re-
spect over Mesopotamia. Great
Britain will enter a pool with the
other allies in the matter of in
IDENTITIES, especially reparation
for air raid damages and shipping
losses.
Italy asks for the Trentono as
far as the Bremen Pass, includ-
ing the whole of the southern
Tyrol; Trieste, Istria, Fiume,
cara, Sebenico. the larger part of
the Dalmatian islands, Aviona and
its hinterland, a protectorate over
Albania, possession of the islands
in the Aegean which were taken
from Turkey during the Tripolitan
war, and the province of Adalia
if France and England should take
territory in Asia Minor.
The Italian contention is that
the Dalmatian islands and such
parts of the Dalmatian coast as
are not assigned to Italy shall be
neutralized. Should France and
England extend their colonial pos
sessions in Africa, Italy desires t.
enlarge her possessions in Eritrea
and Tripoli.
RUMANIA.
Territorial contentious in the
Balkans are complicated and pres
ent difficult problems. Rumania
desires to retain possession of that
portion OF Russian Bessarabia
given her by the central powers
under the cancelled treaty of Blu
charesL and now in her possession
Rumania also desires southern Do
brudja as coded to her by Bull
garia after the second war. Pos
brudja commands the mouth of
session of Bessarabia and the Do
brudja commands the mouth OF
the Danube
To the westward Rumania wants
to annex the Hapsburg provinces
Of Bukowina and Pennsylvania and
a considerable part of the rich
agricultural district of Banat.
It is here that the Rumanian as
pirations> conflict with those of
Serbia, which affirm that under her
war agreements with the entente
ton OF Banat as well as other sec
lions of old Serbia to the north to
round out the proposed Jugo-Slav
state. Both Rumania and Serbia
have moved troops into Banat to
secure their claims, and French
troops have established a neutral
zone to prevent hostilities between
them.
SERBIA.
Serbia's claim to take from the
Hapsburg monarchy the provinces
of Bosnia and Herzegovina are
opposed by no one in the entente
group. The plans for the incor-
poration into Jugo-Slavia of the
Hapsburg province of Croatia, ex-
cept as to the coastal region o.
Fiume, are also considered as sub
ject to the internal decision of the
southern Slavs.
Jugo-Slav and italian aims are
in sharp conflict in the settlement
of the Adriatic coast problem, in
volTing the future of Fiume and
the Croatian seaboard along with
the island Of Dalmatia and Al
bania. The union of Montenegro