South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-02-07

mands self determination for small
races an peoples.
SELF DETERNiINATION Is
INDICTED INTO MESS.
Now the fact of the case seems TO
be that, left TO themselves the ma
jority of the Syrian people would
not choose a French protectorate
They would seek some form OF indie
pendence guaranteed by one or more
protecting nations. Therefore it will
be seen that the present British pol
icy, which would exclude France
from Syria, falls in with Pres't Will
sons policy; but, for the French at
least, there is a suggestion that the
presidents principles have pulled
the British out of a bad hole. and
bid fair to exclude the French from
Syria.
Given this material TO work upon.
it is easy to see how the profession
al diplomats of the old order would
burrow and dig and mine and ma
nipulate; and they have done IL, and
from one quarter therefore, we have
an insistent whisper that the French
have become chauvinistic, and from
other still, the relatively old whis-
per that the British have remained
hypocritical. And out of exactly this
sort of mixture grows the impression
one gathers over and over again in
the American press-that the Paris
conference is after all a gathering
place Of the old reactionary apoti-
ators and diplomats who behind a
facade of idealism, are doing the
same old thing i'm the same old way.
This after all is a part of the Syrian
mess.
But il is worth recalling again
that the Paris conference is very
like an American political conven-
tion-that just as all party bosses
used 10 gother and still do gather:
just as political bargains Of machine
character are discussed and contem-
plated, these things happen in Paris.
Yet, more often than not, and al
ways when public sentiment is
awake. convention. in spite OF ma
chine politicians who have the appe-
tite, but no courage. nominated good
tickets and adopted good platforms.
and side by side with all this bar
gaining. Of which the Syrian cpl
sode is an example one can feel and
one can count on an infinite number
OF cases in which the claims of the
old sort, greatly pressed in the be-
ginning, are being modified or aban-
doned. Practical principles are be-
ing formulated which if they ever
are adopted, as 1 believe they Will
be. will in the future limit exactly
the evils of which I have spoken.
BAD ATMOSPHERE BUT
FOR SMALL POLITICIANS.
You may believe in Paris and find
evidence to support the belief. that
nothing has been changed in Euro
pean diplomacy and methods since
the days of Machiavelli or Meter
Mich, and you may find proof OF 1t
in a score of questions of which the
Syrian and Adriatic problems are
perhaps the most impressive. You
will find many people impressed by
these things TO the extent of believ-
ing that the faint Of the old order
runs through everything in the new
conference. / am sure that volumes
of testimony will 90 back TO Ameri-
ca that nothing honest or real can be
expected in this Paris atmosphere.
But by contrast 1t has now become
reasonably certain that the people
Of Syria will be permitted TO decide
their own fate, which never could
have happened at the congress of
Vienna or at the congress of Berlin.
1t is becoming fairly clear that all
the little politicians with their petty
bargainings are going TO miss the big
prizes and that in a word, things
that they are working for are not
coming off. The bargain which the
British made with France, and then
abandoned 10 sell the same goods 10
the Arabs, does not express the pres
ent spirit or temper of the English
people; nor do I believe for a single
moment. that the demand made by
certain sections of Frenchmen in the
matter of Syria expresses the real
character of French spirit at the
present day. I do not see much diff
ference between the French and the
British aims in this respect. except
that the British have been fortunate
enough to fortify their policy after
the event by the sac, that IL falls in
with the new principles. But the big
thing seems TO me first that the job
isn't going TO be done. and second.
that this is the first time in the
world that il could have been pre-
vented.