Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-02-03
NATIONS LAY CARDS ON PEACE TABLE;
CLAIMS OF NEUTRALS AND THOSE OF THE
ALLIED POWERS BEFORE PARIS MEET

Jugo-Slav state has been voted by
the Montenegrtn parliament, but
the faction representing King
Nicholas and his adherents pro-
tests against a union which shall
not leave to Montenegro entire
local self-government
There is also a conflict between
the plans OF Jugo-Slav statesmen
and those Of CZecho-Slovakia, who
desire a wide corridor from Bo-
hernia to the Adriatic, to Hungary
and Croatia, to secure an outlet to
the sea-
Greece wishes northern Epirus
and Thrace, with the exception of
ConEtantinople and the shores of
the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.
which Premier Venizelos wished to
place under international control.
Greece asks for the vilayet of
Smyrna in Asia Minor and the for
mer Turkish islands in the eastern
Mediterranean, including those
known as the Dodecanesus and
claimed by Italy.
BULGARIA.
Although Bulgaria capitulated
without conditions and her future
territories depend upon the con-
querors, her government has not
abandoned hope of adding extern
sive territories and it even hopes
to receive extensions OF the Bull
garian frontiers in southern Mace
donia, along the Aegeon coast, and
in Thrace.
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA.
The new state of CZecho-
Slovakia is carving out its terri
tories almost entirely al the ex-
pense of the old Austria-Hungary
The old kingdom of Bohemia,
Moravia, and the Slovak regions OF
northern Hungary already have
been incorporated into the pro-
posed state, but there are certain
conflicts with the Poles, Ruthen-
ians, Rumanians and Germans as
well as with the Austrians and the
Magyars because the CZechs claim
that parts of German Saxony and
German Silesia belong ethnograph-
ically to the new state.
The CZecho-Slovaks are coming
into opposition to Polish claims in
Sjlesia and sections Of Galicia,
while to the northeast CZecho-
Slovak expansion has brought
them into contact with the Ruthen-
fans or Ukrainians in eastern Ca
licia. The new state desires ex-
pansion southwark over a front
age on the Danube and over a cor
ridor to the Adriatic.
POLAND
The Poles, with an inadequate
army, are endeavoring to estab-
fish possession of disputed regions
on three sides of Russian Poland
and Galicia, which constitute the
nucleus of the new Polish state.
The Poles desire eastern Galicia to
include Lemberg, which is in the
Ukraine, and>the disputed province
OF Cholm, in Little Russia.
To the northeast the Poles de-
sire to have Wilma recognized as
Polish. Both the Lithuaaians and
the Bolsheviki have raised claims
to Wilma, the Bolsheviki supporting
their pretensions by a menacing
offensive. The Poles are
contending against the Germans
not only for German Silesia and
Posen and West Prussia, as prov
inces populated chiefly by Poles,
but also for the city of Danzig. so
as to provide Poland with direct
access to the sea.
Should the Poles have Danzig.
East Prussia would be cut off from
the rest OF Germany and would re-
main an island" populated by
Germans, surrounded by Polish
dominiens.
BELGIUM.
Belgium asks that her PREPARATION
for damages wrought by Germany
shall be the first lien upon German
assets to the extent of at least 49,
O0O,O00,0O0 francs $4,000, 900, OOO),
or up to a much larger sum if
Germany does not return the ma
chtnerys and the materials taken
from Belgium Belgium believes
that she should be paid first, be-
cause she was the first to be invad-
ed, because her neutrality was VIC
lated, and because she has suffered
rGore from despoilation than any
other country in the war.
Belgium, having reasserted her
independence and thus emerged
from her old state of neutrality,
desires from Holland the left bank
Of the Scheldt and the peninsula
OF Maastricht, which protrudes into
Belgian Limburg. Belgium also
will assent to a plebiscite in Lux
emburg to decide whether that
country wishes to join Belgium or