Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-23
ALLIES ARE WARNED
Of FUTURE VARS IN
PRESIDENT NOTES
Condemns Adriatic Plan in Not
able Documents; Stands Forth
Again as Moral Leader.
PACT SEEN AS A PRICE
Correspondents Baltimore sun.


made public rs it will be in few days,
that Mr.. Wilson, in reasserting the right
of self-ietermination OF all peoples, has
condemned land-grabbing and imperialism
generally in terms that will ring around
the world.
II will be found that he has warned
Europe solemnly and sadly that, i'm ar
irving at the new Adriatic settlement the
Entente powers have sown the seeds of a
new war; that they have created in the
Balkans n new Alsaoe and Lorraine and
that while this generation may escape the
conflict, the next may expect TO fight once
more and die once more to right a stu
pendous wrong.
FORWARD As LEADER.
II will be found that the President
has refused to be frightened by any
bogey connagration in the Adriatic such
as has been conjured up for the purpose
of calling for new deal but on the con-
trarv he has declared that the real con-
fiagration will come in the future if the
present designs against Jugo-Slavia are
carried into effect.
1t will be found that he has stopped
forward once more as the moral leader
of the world in the same sense as that in
which he was acclaimed when he first
went to Europe to participate in the
peace conference, and taking his stand
upon humanitarian grounds, he has given
Europe notice that he Will not recede
one degree.
The Sun correspondent is in posi-
tion to supply this as the sum and sub
stance Of the two notes which the Presi-
dent dispatched to London. And as the
world already knows, Mr.. Wilson can
tldly informs the allied powers that If
America is overruled upon this issue be
will feel il incumbent upon him TO with
draw the treaty of peace, thereby wash
ing his hands of the whole business.
NOT AN EMPTY THREAT.
Nor is this an empty threat, it WAS
declared today by those IN q position
TO know the Presidents mind. He is
fully determined to throw the treaty into
the discard and to undertake the nego
tiaton of q separate peace with Ger
many If Americas war associates vio-
late the agreement reached with him
while he sat as Q potential member of
the Paris conference.
The President cites, in his first COM
munication to the premiers, that they
already had agreed with him upon
program for the future of the Adriatic. |
'rhet program, although unsatisfactory |
10 Italy and to the Italians living upon |
he lower Istrian peninsula, Was based |
upon n principle of exact justice. This /
Tact the French and British did not ques-
ion at the time the original settlement was
ached. they are reminded, and principles
70 immutable, he adds forcibly.
This agreement. it Is declared, was
u, consistent with the secret Treaty
II London, the President admits and
has always admitted. But America was
not a party to that treaty. II did not
know Of Its existence at the time it
was signed and sealed. 1t did not know
Of its existence until Italy invoked it as
her justification for claiming practically |
all of Dalmatia, for claiming Fimne and /
practically all Of the Austrian province /
OF Istria.
PACT SEEN AS A PRICE.
This treaty, the President contends, |
was not drafted rs matter Of justice, |
but was Italyis price for entering the |
war on the side of the Allies, price |
which America is not willing to assist |
IN paving, although France and Great /
Britain feel obligated to keep its terms
Although the President, of course,
does not say so his advisers are con-
vinced that the Entente powers, when
they undertook TO put over the new pro-
gram in the AdriatIc, proceeded upon
the assumption that MIR. Wilson was
no longer factor to be coutended with:
that because of his protracted illness
hc WAS supposed 20 be out of the eu,la-
iion, and that it would be a safe thing
10 repudiate their agreement with him
and to bargain with Italy on any basis
they might feel inclined to adopt
Also, the Presidents advisers, some
OF them, at al events, believe. that the
Entente premiers, viewing the peace
treaty deadlock in the Senate from afar.
felt at liberty to ignore the Mr. Wilson
whom they dealt with at Paris upon the
general theory that, having failed to
receive the support of his own legisla-
tive assembly. was not IN a position of |
power. and that sick or well, opposition
from him no longer was to be appre-
hended.
1t is not at all unlikely that the Presi-
dent himself has been conscious of this
general attitude on the part of the En-
tente governments and that ne embraced
with more enthusiasm the opportunity
Just given him to disillusion certain
gentlemen now sitting 10 London both
as TO the tate OF his health and As to !
the power BIC is yet able TO exercise upon
occasion.
NOTES oF HIGH RANK.
In this connection it is declared by .
those who have knowledge Of the CON
tents OF the two notes that when the
American people read the documents
themselves no question as to the Presi-
dents mental vigor will remain. These
notes. it Is said, will take high rank
among the great State papers of this
administration and viii reflect as much
sntellectural strength as the President
has exhibited at any time since be en-
tered the White House.
The first of the two notes, it is de
Glared, deals more particularly with the
broader phases OF the issue. The Presi-
dent restates the principle of self-de-
Nomination, upon which he stood un-
iinchingy while In Paris, principle
which was accepted finally by Premiers
k'lemenceau and Lloyd George. 1t ex-
presses the severe disappointment which :
Mr. Wilson feels over the rejuggIing of ;.
! he Adriatic settlement, then gives
notice that if the new agreement re-
mains effective America could not in |
justice to itself remain party to the 4
Treaty of Versailles
The second note takes back nothing
which vas laid down in the first, but in 1
aotne respects speaks more decisively h
Upon issues raised, adding the plain \
warming that this government must re-
tire forthwith from immediate associa-
lton with any program which violates Il