Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-04-24


prosposing to Germany an armistice
and peace which should be founded !
on certain clearly defined principles
and justice.
Is Basis of Peace.
Upon these principles, the peace
with Germany has been conceived not |
only, but formulated. Upon those
principles, it will be effected. We
cannot ask the great body of powers
to propose and effect peace with
Austria and establish a new basis of
independence and right in the states
which originally constituted the Aus
tra-Hungarian empire and in the
states of the Balkan group on prin-
ciples of another kind. We must APP
ply the same principles to the settle
ment of Europe in those quarters that
we have applied in the peace with
Germany.
ut was upon the explicit avowal
of those principles that the initiative
for peace was taken. 1t is upon them
that the whole structure of peace
must rest.
eff those principles are to be adj
hered to. Fiume must serve as the
outlet of 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-Slav 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 a
power of which it 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 regions which the port
must serve. It is for that reason. no
doubt, that Fiume was not included in
the pact of London but there definite
ly assigned to the Crotians."
Reasons For Pact.
And the reason why the lines of
the pact of London swept about many
of the islands of the eastern coast
OF the Adriatic and around the portion
OF the Dalmatian coast which lies
most open to that sea was not only
that her and there are BODIES on those
islands and here and there on the
coast. there are bodies of people of
Italian blood and connection but also
and no doubt chiefly because it was
felt that 1t was necessary for Italy
to have a 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.
"Ant AuStria II unoary pn 1ouo-ar
exists. 1t is proposed that the forti-
fications which the Austrian govern
ment constructs there shall be razed
and permanently destroyed.
Aggression Impossible.
lit is a 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
limitation of armaments, which puts
the new aggression out OF the ques-
ttion. There can be no fear OF the
unfair treatment of groups of Italian
people. because adequate guarantees
will be given. under International
sanction. of the equal and equitable
treatment of all racial minorities.
| Gin brief. every question associat-
ed with this settlement wears a new
| aspect, a new aspect given it by the
very victory for right for which Italy
has made the supreme sacrifice of
blood and treasure. Italy, along
with the four other great powers, has
| become one Of the chief trustees of
| the new order. which she has played
so honorable part in establishing.
And on the north and northeast
! her natural frontiers are completely
| restored. along with the whole sweep
of the Alps from northwest to south
east, to the very end of the Istrian
peninsula. including all the great
watershed within which, Trieste and
Pola Lie, and all the fair region.
whose face nature has turned toward
F, the great, peninsula upon which the
historical life of the Latin people
has been worked and through CEN
turtles of famous story every since
| Rome was first set upon her seven
hills.
/ Unity Is Restored.
"Her ancient unity is restored
| Her lines are extended to the great
walls which are her natural defense
1t is within her choice to be surround
ed by friends: to exhibit to the newly
liberated peoples across the Adriatic
that noblest quality of greatness,
magnanimity. friendly generosity, the
preference of justice over interests.
"The nations associated with her,
the nations that know nothing of the
pact of London or of any other
special understanding that lies at
the beginning of this great struggle,
and who have made their supreme
sacrifice also in the interest not of
national advantage or defense. but
of the settled peace of the world. are
now united with her older associates
in urging her to assume leadership
which cannot be mistaken in the new
order of Europe.
America is Italy's friend. Her
people are drawn millions strong,
from ltaly's own fair countrvsides.
She is linked in blood as we'll as
in affection, with the Italian people
Such ties can never be broken, and
America wss privileged, by the gen.
erous commissions of her assistants
in the war, to initiate the peace we
are about to consummate-to vi
tiate it upon terms which she had
herself formulated and in which |