New-York tribune., 1920-10-31

| Copstantinople at the Chatalia lines /;
in a word, arrives within sight of
that Byzantine capital from which
Fl e was evicted some five centuries
ago. Moreover. in all that has hap
cned in recent months, there is the
frank hint that, with British ap-
proval, Greece will presently enter
Constantinople. N Nv occupied by AZ
led troops and dominated by Allied
warships, and thus restore condi-
tions existing nearly half thousand
years ago in southeastern Europe.
Looking, then, at eastern Europe,
from the Gulf of Finland to the
Golden Horn, it will be seen that
We settlements of the last two years
represent curious reversal of di-
rection. In all this region tribes
and snationaitles lost their inde-
pendence and even their race con-
seriousness as the result Of the on
lush. of conouering races. One by
one the Balkan tribes succumbed to
the Turk, and when the day of the
Turk was over the servitude to
foreign master was continued by the
advance Of the Austrian and the
Russian. Lying between the fringes
of the East and the West, the doom
Of these small races seemed fixed
forever.
The great fact which the docu-
ments of Paris and Of Riga witness
IS the escape Of the small tribes
from the tyranny of the large. Pre-
cisely as the close of the Revolution
ary and Napolecnic wars left France
little changed in area, and not at all
shaken in unity. the end of the
World War sees Germany surviving,
renalized only BY the loss Of border
provinces, stolen from Poland be-
tween l772 and 1915 and from
France between 1914 and 1871. But
east and south of Germany, as east
and south Of France, the changes
Rave been momentous.
And in these changes we must rec
ognize the rise of the new issues
which will make the history of the
coming century The Balkan prob
lem, the Eastern question, so far as
Europe is concerned, has disappeared
with the Turk; all the ambitions of
all the great powers in the Balkans
have proved equally futile; instead
u e several tribes have succeeded in
regaining independence and achiev-
ing frontiers roughly corresponding
with their tribal entities. But, in
place Of the old Eastern question, we
have the new dispute on the Adriatic,
between the Southern Slavs and the
Italians, which has already poisoned
European wells for two long years.
Rise Of New Issues
Moreover, in the north there has
arisen a new problem, or rather a
question which filled the history Of
Europe for many centuries with the
threats and realities Of war, namely,
the Baltic question, has been re-
vlyed Russia has retired from the
Baltic, save about the head Of the
Gulf of Finland, but who can believe
that the great Slav state of the
future will permanently consent to
be separated from the sea by a thin
facade of helpless states, such as Es-
thonia, Livland and Lithuania, even
If all three should seek strength in
unity? Yet it will be the policy of
all the states interested in the Bal
tic, of Sweden, Germany and Great
Britain, to preserve the independ-
ence Of these states and thus pre-
vent Russian control of the Baltic.
To the Baltic question there is
added the Polish, also of very great
antiquity. Poland has escaped from
the Russian, German and Austrian
grip, but if the disappearance of the
Austrian makes Polish escape. on this
side permanent, if the frontiers
Poland has accepted with respect of
the Russian leave open the way for
an ultimate restoration of friendship
between both branches of the Slav
family, between the German and the
Poles, the frontiers laid down at Yer
sallles represent only an incitation
to war. Nor can Poland ever be
quite sure that the German and the