The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-21
By FRANK II. siMoNDs.

self and bound to have very wide ana
beneficial influence upon all of the exist
ing European situation. The second cir
cumstance only less significant, is that the
settlement avoids all the pitfalls and dam
gers OF the League OF Nations.
In word, we have to deal neither with
a Danzig solution. the fatal weakness of
which was disclosed in the crisis of the
recent Russo-Polish War, nor with a Sarre
Basin adjustment, which amounts only to
postpontns for fifteen years all actual solu-
ton and at the Same time keeping alive
all the causes Of strife
In the Rapallo Conference both italy and
Jugo-Slavia have shown surprising modera-
ton. The victory, If victory there be in the
solution. IL found not so much in the fact
that the Italians have succeeded in saving
Ffume from Slav rule and League of Nations
complexities, but rather in the fact that,
while preparing the way for ultimate annex
alton of Fiume and fixing their northern
frontier at last upon the crest of the Alps
from Switzerland to the Quarnero, Italy has
at the same time left the door open for that
friendly relation between Slav and Latin
which was the dream of Mazzini.
Italy Presented Her Bill at the
Paris Peace Conference
1t is idle now to go back over all the long
and troubled history OF the Adriatic question
the moment, If only to see the future and
the present significance of the Rapallo agree
ment At Paris Italy presented TO the Allied
nations, to Great Britain and France, that
contract, which was the Treaty Of London
of 1915. by the terms of which Italy agreed
to enter the war on the Anglo French Rus
sian side, while those three great Powers
agreed that she should have certain profits
from the expected victory. Chief among
crest of the Alps from Switzerland to the
Adriatic and in addition the northern half
of the province of Dalmata
For reasons explicabe by reference to his
Fourteen Points, President Wilson promptly
vetoed this basis of settlement and at the
same time with equal firmness refused to
honor Italys additional request that she be
permitted to acquire F'iume, excepted from
the Treaty of London, but Enthusiastically
Italian in population and thus falling within
the application of Mr.. Wilson's principle of
elf-determination.
Italys position, however, was obviously
illogical, since she asked the fulflment of
the Treaty of London, which did violence to
the principle of sef-determination, con-
spicuously in the case of Dalmatia, while in
the matter of Fiume she invoked this same
principle
Actually the Treaty of London had as
signed to the Italians not only the consd-
cradle Latin population in the lower valleys
of the Trentino. but also the considerable
German population in the upper valleys. in
Guiding the inhabitants of the towns of
Botzen, Meran and Brixen. In the same way
it had similarly assigned to Italy very large
Siav populations In all the region between
the eastern shore of the Adriatc and the
crests of the Julian Alps. Finally the pop
ulation of the half of Dalmatia assigned to
Italy was overwhelmingly Slav.
Wanted Crests of the Alps as a
Natural Line of Defence
Italy asked for the crests of the Alps as
a defensive rampant, a wall against the Teu-
tonic world And for some odd reason Mr..
Wilson did for once ignore his principle of
self determination and agreed that the Ital-
ians should annex 250,000 Germans But
when Italy asked for the Dalmatan coast
and islands as protection against a Slav men
ace. and demanded Ffume on the basis of
the principle of determination, the
President baked. Unfortunately this dispute
came at a critical moment in Paris and Mr..
Wilson regarded 1t as a test of the success or
failure Of his whole programme He also
misled by the enthusiasm with which
he recently had been received in Italy and
concluded that the italian people would
listen to him rather than to the statesmen
who represented Italy at Paris
As consequence there emerged Mr.. Will
sons amazing appeal to the italian people
over the heads of Orlando and Sonnino,
which resulted in the withdrawal of the
Italians from the Peace Conference, the
stimulation of the Jugo-Slavs to resist all
italian proposals for settlement and all pro-
posals made by the British and the French
with the idea Of composing this dangerous
quarrel, since these proposals did not assure
to Jugo-Slavia the maximum of benefits
which would flow from the rigid application
of the Wilsonan doctrine. Moreover, the
situation was further complicated by the
daring seizure of Fiume by D'Annunzio who
thus forbade I'm advance any italian conces-
sion with respect to this port the sole
economic outlet of the new Slav State upon
the open sea.
The consequence has been that the Adri-
attic question has poisoned the whole Euro
pean situation for more than a year and a
half. Since France and Britain in the main
supported President Wilson, Italian resent
ment has known no bounds and French sol
diers sent to police Adriatic districts in ac-
cordance with international agreement have
been murdered by italian soldiers. More
over, italian bitterness toward the United
States has reached almost unprecedented
limits, MS any one who was in italy in 1919
can testify.
In truth. the Adriatlc dispute has served
10 demosh the alliance which conquered
Germany. Between France and Italy there
has sprung up an animosity which almost
exceeds that between France and Germany
before 1914. France, seeking to build up n
central European barrier to later German
expansion southwark, has encountered Ttal-