Evening star., 1920-02-09
NEW ADRIATIC CRISIS SEEN
IN JUGOSLAVS' FIUME STAND
Dispute Logical Result of President VIII
sons Course at Paris, Siimonds Says y
Other European Tangles.

had been willing to accept any com
promise based upon the European
facts or if he had been prepared to
support the Jugoslav claims. which he
had recognized just in his public
utterahce. But any compromise
would have meant the invasion of |
the principles he had advocated; any
employment of force. however re
moved from military or naval cir
cumstances. would have meant an in
ternational incident.
President Wilson would do neither
one thing nor the other. Having pro-
claimed policy. which was just.
having advocated principles which
were beyond debate. he relied upon
the principles to do the fighting and
he declined both to give force to the
principles and to permit any com
promise which would eliminate the
ugly international crisis ut the eA
pense of the principles.
Result u Year of Chaos.
The result has been nearly year
of chaos. Even Il compromise which
left scars would not have provoked
more animosity between the southern
Slav and the Italian than this long
and angry dispute and any com
promise now will necessarily leave a +;
permanent bitterness. because it will !
have to be achieved by the sacrifice of
certain of the Slav rights and these
rights have achieved new power
OF President Wilson's course in cham
pioning them.
Meantime the dispute has not been
restricted to Italy and the Jugoslavs.
On the contrary it was extended and
became the cause of an almost un-
precedented Italian resentment, di-
rected chiefly at the French, but also
at the Americans and the British.
France and Italy are today more un
friendly than they have been for forty
N chi of Hv hnr It.,li hn1
Clemenceau guilty of having sup
ported President Wilson in the
Fiume episode. And this split actually
threatens to disrupt the alliance
which fought and defeated Germany.
Nor does the incident end with
France-Italian hostility. 1t has en-
broiled Rumania and Jugoslavia. be-
cause the Rumanians have found
Italian support for their claims to
the portion of the Banat awarded to
Serbia at Paris. The possibility of
clash between the Slav. and the 1tal-
ians has encouraged the Rumanians
to hope for an opportunity to invade
the western Banat. while Italy IN
Even the Bulgars see chance to-
make a new bid for Macedonia by a !
fresh attack upon Serbia.
AS for the Italians. they are work
ing steadily to foment jealousy in
Jugoslavia. to estrange the Croats
to encourage the Montenegrins to
seek separation from Serbia. The
very unity of the kingdom of the
Serbs. the Croats and the Slovenes
has been impaired. A new Balkan
question has been created far more
difficult than that which existed be-
fore the world war and actually pre-
cipitated the colossal struggle.
American Policy Blamed.
The blame must rest upon Ameri-
can policy at Paris. upon the mis-
cipies. President Wilson believed
against their government. If their
government insisted upon imperial
istic policies at the expense of jus
tice and American friendship. But |
the Italian people. by contrast. were
and are prepared to upset any min !
istry which complies with the Presi- !
dents ideas in the Adriatic
TIE ''nris conference grow out of the
championship of lust solutions of
disputed questions. una:con,panied
by any effective support of the prin-
ciples. In international relations it |
is rarely possible TO persuade any !
nation to resign claim which it be- |
Iieves to be just solely by demon
that the claims are unjust and 1eav- !
ing the rest to fate. On the whole. |
even the old-fashione'l secret diplo-
macy made a better fSt at things by |
its methods than the new interna-
tionalism has with its processes. /
Fiume is the patent and unfortu-
nately the lasting example of the
truth of this.
Copyright 1920 Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.)