New-York tribune., 1920-02-26

not remain unsettled The possibility
of clash between the Italians and
the Jugo-Slavs is patent. Such clash
would involve the Rumanians, because
of their own dispute with the Serbs;
the Bulgars, with their traditional ha-
tired for the Serbs; the Greeks, with
their claims against the Italians, quite
as just as those of the Jugo- -Slavs.
Moreover, as long as the question is
not settled, France, Britain and Italy
will be divided, and Italian anger at
Anglo-French opposition to Italian
claims will continue to mount.
Compromise impossible
Actually the Presidents ultimatum
abolished all immediate chance of the
compromise proposed on one of the
most dangerous of the surviving perils
to world peace. In my judgment the
President is right in viewing the pro-
posed settlement as not in accordance
with absolute justice, but is he, or the
United States, prepared to insist that
absolute Justice be done, even if this
involves the sending Of new army to
Europe and war with Italy? If not.
then refusal to let Europe settle its
dispute seems a prolongation Of q
deadly menace to all order and re-
habilitation. 1t may prove the cause of a
new war.
President Wilson has clearly not re-
nounced his purpose to have America
play the role Of world arbiter, which he
clearly held in Paris. He discloses the
same determination to pass upon each
question as 1t arises from. the point of
view Of abstract justice-as Justice
strikes him and his fellow countrymen
for, repeat, most informed Ameri
cans will agree with Mr.. Wilson over
the merits of the Jugo- Slav contention
in the Adriatic. But in refusing to let
Europe reach a compromise he is COM
PEELED by the course Of the United
States Senate to refrain from anv af-
firmative action.
In the end Europe will reluctantly.
because it still fears to offend the
American nation, which remains the
single source of credit and loans. turn
to the settling of its own affairs in it's
own way, because America, while re-
Jectlng the European method, does not
propose any other possible escape from
the prolongation of war-breeding dis
putes. When Europe at last perce;vos
the fact, the French claim to occupv
the left bank Of the Rhine and the
Italian demand for security in the
Adriatic will be supported by the Brit
lsh, who have already realized similar
and no more justhable aspirations in
the matter of the German fleet and the
German colonies.
If Jugo-Slaus Call
But the President will still he able
Tor certain length of time to prevent
european settlement, because his cham
plonshlp of the claims of the Jupo-
Slavs, Tor example, will lead these neo-
pie to reject what are on the who,e
unfair terms, in the hope of American
support. But since the situation in the
Senate and in the country is what it is
to-day it is highly probable that when
the crisis arrives and the Jugo-Slavs
are confronted with Italian armed
forces, authorized by the Anglo French
ltailan concert to carry out the terms
OF compromise, the Jugo-Savs will
call upon ths President and the Ameri-
can people for military and naval as
sistance in vain.
And if America refuses that aid, then
the Jugo-Slavs will feel, not without
Justice, that they have been abandoned.
betrayed into hopeless resistance and
then deserted in the moment Of deadly
peril.
Copyright. 1920. by the Mcclure Newanan..
Syndicate).