Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-02-18
LET LEAGUE ALLIES DO 1T.

According to foreign dispatches
of this week President Wilson has
just stirred resentment of the allied
governments by recently sending
a sharp memorandum to Lloyd
George that America disapproves
of a proposition the allies have
submitted to the Jugo-S lavs about
the Fiume and Adriatic contro-
versy. The president told George
that if the allies now in the league
are going ahead without American
approval of America in that settle
ment, our representatives will
cease to confer with them in ad-
justing the troubles. The allies,
tired of the racket on the Adriatic
shore and the threat of war, are
preparing to dictate a settlement
decide what is practicable or may
be just, and make it go. 1t is to be
expected that an arbitrary and
forcible order will be given, or dis
putants will engage in regular OF
irregular warfare. The allies yield
ed to the protest of Wilson at
Paris, so far as to object to giving
Italy moro than had been bar
n q
in opposing Italy he started some
thing they were unable or unwill-
ing to finish unless America helped
them out with money and men
against an ally and a nation friend
ly to this country.
The Adriatic controversy is a
quarrel not ours, and not any of
our business, really. If we were
in the league of nations, though, we
might have to shed some good Am
erican blood, for one side or the
other. The Jugo-Slav claim to
Fiume may be the more reasonable.
Most members of the principal
allied and associated powers" have
stood with Italy because they were
bound up with her in a secret
treaty which was designated to dis
pose of peoples ana territory with
out consulting the peoples to be
disposed of. We might keep the
controversy alive, but could war
between Italy and the Jugo-S lav be
prevented?
There has to be a settlement of
the controversy between Italy and
Jugo-Slayia, and there is no inn
mediate prospect that any settle
ment can be made on a basis of
reason and agreement. The SUI
preme councils ultimatum to Jugo-
Slavia has been rejected and a
counter-proposal submitted That. |
of course, will be set aside without
consideration, unless the doctors in
Paris are willing to admit their |
own impotency to make any deci- !
sion stick. And if they do try
some other prescription they will
find Italy as obdurate as the Jugo- |
CIdNS now are.
Discussion as a substitute for the |
sword is not making noticeable
Roadway here. This, we may not |
unreasonably assume, is because it !
is difficult matter to change hui
man nature by fiat. There has
been enough discussion Of the con-
flicting claims to Fiume and with |
respect to the whole Adriatic sit
uation. All anybody wants is JUS
tiCe. The trouble is there is no
agreement as to wha: would con-
stitute justice in this case. For
one thing. the custodians-self-ap-
pointed-of the goddess who affect
TO speak for her cannot agree
among themselves. How, then. can
this dispute be settled? BY more
talk? The opposing parties are
getting very impatient.
When at the Paris conference
another nation. stubborn and ag-
gressive Japan, revealed that the
allies had promised Shantung to
Japan in a secret treaty, Just as
Italy had been bargained with,
President Wilson admitted it was a
wrong to China, but he did not
hold out as he did about the Jugo-
Slav rights. Instead he declared |
so much faith in the league of ma
tons that he was sure the body
would when in working order, per-
suade or force Japan to yield the
looted land to China, from whom
the Germans had wrested it.
Has the president lost faith that |
the league can and will do the
square thing? VIII not the league,
under the high minded intentions
Wilson asserted he inspired in the
allies, do the same justice to the
Jugo-Slavs that he relied upon for
China against Japan? If it was
right to pass the buck in one case
and defer justice, why not in the
other?
At least until this country con-
sents to take up burdens that Pres
ident Wilson planned to assume
and helped TO prepare when he was
sent abroad to settle troubles with
countries with which we were at
war, but not to promise to get us
into other wars.
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