New-York tribune., 1920-02-19


Of all great international settlements
has been tho ultimate sacrifice of the
rights and Just claims Of small nations
either to the concerns or impatience
Of tho larger. Invariably the time and
the attention Of the great powers are
occupied with the debate Of the things
most important for them, and finally
the patience of the world is exhausted
and the peacsmakers, patching up an
arrangement affecting their own inter-
ests, leave the rights and destinies Of
the small nations to take care of them
selves.
This is exactly the stage which has
now arrived in the present world set
tleme~t. The publics, like the govern
ments Of France, Great Britain, the
United States, are sick to death of the
hagglings and snarls Of the Paris Con-
ference. Such reserve Of patience as
remains is consumed in the observation
OF the attempt to straighten out a
it affects great nation, is of i'm
portance, forbidding total avoidance.
But there are not few things left
undone which clamor for attention, and
not the least is the case of the Greeks.
In two particular cases the great pow
ers have totally failed to fulfill their
duty toward Greece. They have re-
fused to take the necessary steps to
insure Greek occupation of the Egean
Islands and Of Northern Epirus. On
the subject Of the Egean Islands there
has never been any debate; in the
very dawn Of history these islands
were Greek, and Greek they have re-
mained. Yet Italy has occupied many
Of them, as consequence Of her
Turkish war, and continues to hold
them.
Hellenic Islands
A Japanese occupation Of Long ISL
and would be no more Of an offending
against the rights of nationality than
the Italian stay in Rhodes or the scat
tered islands Of the Dodecanese. In
these islands the Greek War for Inde-
pendence was gallantly waged, the
centenary Of which will be celebrated
next year. The single hope Of the in
habitants, more than 100000, has been
to return to the Hellenic nation ever
since there was Greek state, Offering
them national asylum.
The case of the islands is every bit
as clear as the case Of Dalmatia; the
Italians in Rhodes are offenders
against justice exactly as much as were
tho Austrians who held Trieste and
the Trentine. There is no claim the
Italians have urged for the Irredenta
which may not be urged by the Greeks
in Chios and Rhodes. And if Italy is
to be permitted to establish herself on
Greek Islands in the heart of the
Greek Egean, then there is the be-
ginning Of a new phase Of the Eastern
question out Of which came the World
War.
Italian ambition
Nor is the case of Northern Epirus.
and particularly Of Koritza, less clear.
The territory is part Of ancient
Greece; Tepelleni, on the very from
tier of Greek claim, is, by translation,
the hill Of the Hellenes; Dodona is
an ancient altar Of Greek nationalism.
Koritza is the site, or was until re-
Gently, Of hourishing Greek school.
The population Of these districts well
coined the Greeks when the powers
permitted Greece to occupy them dur
ing the World War. Without Koritza
the whole of the Greek lands west of
the Pindus are open to invasion, and
there is no repute Of communication
between Epirus and Macedonia.
Once moro 1t 10 Italian ambition
which blocks Greek national aspirs-