Evening star., 1920-01-03

the face of italian deeds has caused a
revulsion Of feeling: The Croats are
losing some measure of confidence IN
the strength of the new state. 1talian
money has been successful to degree
in rousing old jealousies and ac-
centuating new rivalries. The same
has been true in Montenegro, even in
Slovenia there is mounting discomfort
Back to Military Action.
Meanwhile the official world has
been tending more and more toward
military action as the sole solution of
the situation. At the present moment
Jugoslav divisions are actually ready
to resist any new Italian aggression,
and resistance means war. Nor
should it be forgotten that the quail
ity of the Slav troops is such as to
make their resistance worthy of note.
while the character of the country
lends itself to a guerrilla war OF al
most unlimited extent.
The factors, however. materially
modify the military circumstances
In the first place, the vastly superior
army of the Italians, speaking numer-
ically. together with the enormous ac-
emulation of military material re-
sulting from the capture of Austrian
armies, would promise certain victory,
were it not for the fact that the in
ternal condition of Italy is such that
the arrival of a new war would al
most inevitably bring Italian revolu-
ton.
Thus we may quite confidently ex-
pect that if the Italians make any
new invasion of the Slav lands of
the eastern shore of the Adriatic; If
they endeavor to make good per-
manently claims to the northern half
of Dalmatia, they will at ence enter
crisis within the kingdom. Such
war would probably prove the last
straw to the mass of Italian people,
who sec their country wellnigh
ruined financially by two recent wars
and now embarking upon third.
Mny Attack JuEOslnvia.
On the other hand, Serbian success,
predicated on domestic revolution
in Italy, must be discounted by the
fact that two and possibly three OF
the neighborS of Jugoslavia are likely
to attack this new state. once 1T is
involved in a dispute with Italy.
These three states are Rumania, Bull
garia and Hungary.
The Rumanian grievance is well
known. Before the western allies en-
listed Rumania and to get her into
the war they made her certain prom
ises. Among other things they prom
ised her the whole of the Banat. But
at Paris they refused to honor their
old agreement and gave one corner OF
this old morSel of Hungary to Serbia.
The result was an instant feud between
Serb and Rumanian; the latter have
never accepted the cession of this bit
of the Banat to the JugoslavS and
only wait propitious moment to oc-
cupy this district. thus attacking
Jugoslavia in the back at the moment
she is involved in war with the
Italians along the Adriatic.
The Bulgarians, on their side, have
never resigned their claims to Macedo-
mia, TO establish which they have fought
three wars in six years. But as a con-
sequence of this last war they have not
only continued to remain outside OF
Macedonia, but they had to give up
Strumnitza, Tcaribrod and strip of
front lands near Widin. AS to Hungary,
the situation is less clear, but the desire
to regain their old Slav lands certainly
exists among the Magyars and has
never been worked upon by Itallan IN
trigue.
Never in the days when the peace of
Europe hung by single thread did the
Balkan situation seem more critical than
today War between the Slavs and the
Italians seems now to many of the former
the sole method of preserving their new
national existence, and the Italians have
sought to destroy this state by intrigue
and continue to offer not pretexts, but
legitimate causes for Slav military re-
sistance And while Jugoslavia is men
aced by Rumanian. Bulgarian and per-
hans Magyar attacks from the rear,
Italy faces the possibility OF revolution
behind her new front.
,fCopyrighted, 1920 by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate)