The sun., 1919-04-25

document"
However difficult and embarrassing
may be the Fiume situation from the
point of view Of the European par
ties to the Pact of London preventing
separate treaties of peace and to the
signatories of the alleged secret
treaty of April, 1915, our own posi-
ton with regard TO the question ought
to be as clear rs any daylight that
ever permeated serene atmosphere.
Mr.. WILSON himself has nothing
to do with it, except as he has
injected himself into it by his own
motion. When Italy adhered to
the Pact of London, and also
when she and her allies signed
the secret treaty containing the
alleged provisions regarding the
east shore Of the Adriatic, President
WILSON was busily, and successfully
keeping us out of the war All his
precepts and principles and points
tying us up with Adriatic geography
and future Balkan nationalities are
conceptions Of his own long subse-
quent to the reciprocal promise Of
Great Britain, France and Italy to
conclude no peace on terms unsatis-
factory to any one Of them. That Is
no secret pact or treaty; it was pub
lished when Italy added her armed
force to that Of her allies and made
war on Austria. And this first Pact Of
London Is the strength Of the Italian
Governments position in Its present
claims to Fiume, whether they be just
or unreasonable warranted or unwar-
ranted by secret enga gements Of later
date than September 3, 1914. She
can say to France, she can say to
Great Britain, as the war to end as
it began, with the violation Of
treaty engagement on the scrap of
paper theory of the nothingness of
international good faithi"
The American Government has
naught to do with the question Of
Fiume or the merits of italian claims
there and thereabout. It is within
the Presidents rights, If he is SO
crazy, to prepare and submit to the
Senate Of the United States a treaty
erecting new European nation and
guaranteeing its defence against Ital-
ian interests by all the military and
financial and economic resources Of
our great republic. President VIII.
son can 60 to that extreme Of folly If
he SO chooses; It Is for the Senate to
say whether such an enterprise shall
be undertaken at the expense Of our
people. But it is manifestly not
within the Presidents personal rights
or constitutional powers to determine
on his own judgment the destinies Of
the Italian population Of Fiume, or
to force Italy to abrogate her right
of choice under her treaty with France
and Great Britain, or to make his
personally conceived League of Peace
a menace to peace and a broad, easy
highway to future war.
The American people have naught
to do with the question Of Fiume,
except as their individual sympathies
and racial proclivities may incline
them to one or another side Of a
purely foreign question. Great num-
bers of Americans may believe, with
THE Sun, that it Is far better for the
future peace of the world that the
powerful nation Of Italy should be sat
isfiedin her legitimate aspirations than
that she should be forced-and mainly
by the pride of opinion and danger
Gus action of one American assuming
to speak in the name Of America
that she should be forced into q
chronic discomfort and sense of bit
ter injury breeding inevitably the
germs of future war. This is a
League of Peace with a vengeance
Neither the foundation of n Jugo-
Slavia under American patronage nor
the suppression Of Italian hopes, nor.
again, the cancellation of 1taly's
treaty rights under previous compact
with two other great European ma
tions, was among the declared aims
of our Congress when it declared war
against the Teutons.
We get from this unfortunate Incl,
dent n faint idea of what is going TO
!