New-York tribune., 1920-05-09


the larger question be-
fore the San Reno conference, the
problem of the relations between
the Allies, the present state and the
future probabilities of the alliance
which conquered Germany, it is not
less true that other decisions
sketched at San Reno may have for
the Near East larger consequences
than any other similar set of agree
ments affecting the eastern end of
the Mediterranean since the DAYS of
the collapse of the Byzantine En-
pire and the rise Of Turkey in Eu-
rope.
In their general recognition of
the responsibility Of Germany for
the World War Americans have
peen too little interested in the
Eastern question. Yet this ques-
ton supplied the occasion for the
conflict and contributed certain of
The causes which were woven into
the mesh of European rivalries, am
bitions and even anxieties. The de.
composition of the Turkish Empire,
in fact, infected the springs of Eu-
ropean policies and international re-
lations, and the crime of Sarajevo
was, after all, the ultimate manifes-
tation of the working of the poison,
End of Two Empires
Now, after a fashion, the war has
liquidated Turkey in Europe. 1t
has similarly distributed the assets
Of the Hapsburg Empire. The two
edifices have fallen together. But
one of the secrets of the persist
ence of each was found in the in
ability to find a substitute. We
were all accustomed to quote, be-
fore the recent war, the remark of
one statesman: eff there were no
Austria it would be necessary to
create one" But not until the war
had come and gone, leaving Austria
IN ruins, was there any general ap-
probation of the fundamental wis
dom of this declaration.
To-day, in place of the Hapsburg
Empire we have in Central Europe
a confusion of states, not yet, in all
cases, we'll fused; too frequently
divided from each other by racial
hateds and territorial jealousies,
which supply indefinite causes for
anxiety in the future. Worse than
this, to the confusion created by
these elements there is added the
confusion, for the moment, at least,
more serious, due to the economic
chaos the changes have produced.
Self-determination of races is far
more easily achieved than self-main-
tenance. The separation of economic
units mutually complementary has
resulted in a paralysis which in
places beggars description. It al
most seems, in certain instances. as
II races which had for centuries
cherished the dream of liberation
have realized it only to die of star
vation in the first hours of freedom.
The New Austrian Peril
So much for the problem of Gen.
tral Europe. The dissolution of the
Austrian Empire, inescapable under
the circumstances, has resulted in
chaos hardly less perilous to world
peace than that form of order. sus-
tanned by bayonet and applied by
tyranny, which existed before july.
1914. But there remains the oues-
ton Of the Turkish Empire, much
larger in area, although containing
less than half as many human
beings. In it, too, decomposition has
reached a point where the whole
world must, for sanitary reasons, if
no other, be concerned.
TO dispose of the Sultan's Euro
pean state is, aside from CONSTANT
nople and the Straits, no grave task.
Thrace has been Greek now and
again since the dawn of history
The Hellenic element is the largest
single ethnic group. In assigning
this province to Greece, then. the
San Reno conferees have acted
logically and justly.
Yet this act of justice carries with
1t no solution to the age-long rivalry
between the Bulgar and the Greek.
No decision of the European Areopa-
aus can extinguish the aspirations
and the ambitions of the Bulgarians.
who thousand years ago fought
for this region with the Greeks of
the Byzantine Empire, won it, lost
1t, rewon it and finally saw it pass
to the Turks, together with their
own lands and those of Greece, all
swallowed up in the engulfing waves
of Turkish invasion