The Washington herald., 1922-06-25

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Of the position OF Prussia IN Ger
many. Fifty years $50 y was
Serb hghtins and Serb psrsistsncs
which resulted In the liberation OF
the Southern siavs: they have the
army. the tradition OF hghting and
have developed soldiers Of no mean
ability.
On the other hand both ths
croats and the siovenes have
reached = far higher state OF edu- :
cation under HapsburE rule tnan
! the Serbs. only relatively recentls
| liberated from Turkish rule, Thev
resent the Serb spirit and military
methods quite as much as the Ba-
varian and the Saxon resented the
Prussian imm ediateiy after the uni
| fcation Of Germany. Today there
are active efforts both In the Sio-
vene and the Croatian regions TO
bring about autonomy and there
have been reports Of the prociama-
ton Of a free Croatia.
surroundea ~ Enemies.
Yet n there are greater differ
.nce. between the Sloyenes. the
Croets and the Serbs than between
| the Prussian. the Bavarians and the
saxon a In still true that these
d,fferences are hardly greater than
those which separated the Sicilian
from the Lombard sixty years aro
| ana whatever may be the diner
ences as between tribes, all face
| common peril from without. For the
new Juro -Slavia Is ringed round
with enemies. only Greece and now
pumania by the recent marriage
are perhaps transformed into
,r,ends and the Banat dispute still
suhs'sts.
while italian policy aims always
At promoting disunion within Jug"-
Si.yia and blocking Slav aspira-
tiops for a real outlet to the sea
Hungarians look with ill-concealcd
indignation upon the situation
which has not only deprived them
of Fiume and access to the sea. but
has also torn from them all of their
Croatian regions and large areas
north of the Danube. both in the
Banat and In Smyrna. Magyar
policy looks confidently forward to
better time when all the lost
provinces will be reclaimed bv
arms and among these lost prov
.nces the territory assigned To the
SerD mas particular value.
As TO the Austrian. ha no.
eoine SO utterly negligible tha, o.
.ne moment the Southern sIav prev
uisreearo MIN; yet II Is clear ,bat
eer the Austrian fraemen,
snoula ne united with Germany.
enen tne slav. like the Italian
woulo nave to face the cer,ain,y
OF Teutonic push toward the Ad.
riatic with both Fiume and Tr,-
este az ooJectives. Moreover. since
.ne oloNene lands now added to
Jugo-Siavia were once Austr,.n
tne Jnso-Slavs have to fear an nj.
Innate challenge to their title
based upon this fact.
bulgarian Menace.
There remains the Bulgarian. and
niS snimosity can never be extIn-
suisheu. A quarter of a century
aso ne seemed to have the chance
20 emerge as the dominant Balkan
STATE. HIS claim to Macedonia, to
Saionica as wen as Monastir seemed
insure ultimate possession.
from Lake Ochrida to the Black
sea ana from the Aegean to the old
sou.nern frontier OF Serbia. Bull
sarlan influence was. next TO Turk
Ism. supreme. and the Austrian.
backed the Bulgar.
ret with the exception Of a small
agment in the Rhodopians. all
tnls prospective heritage has es-
cspeo the Bulgarian. Worse than
TINS not only has he lost Mon
astir; kavalla. Salonica and Adri-
anople' but he has been compelled
20 ceoe lands to the Rumanian and
tne serb which have been his for
decades. the Southern Dobrudja and
the strategic points from which he
iaunched his attack upon the Bel
graoe -saionica Railway IN 1918.
10 ootain Monastir and SaIonica
ana tnus the reversion of Mace
oonia' Bulgaria has fought three
wars In the last decade: todav .be
is worse of than when she started
but her aspirations remain un-
changed.
Racial Complications.
Jugo-Slavia has to face, then, the
permanent hostility of Italy. OF
Hungary. of Bulgaria. She must
look with apprehension toward any
eventual absorption of Austria bv
Germany. Now as to Rumania re-
Gently become a friend as a conse-
quence OF the royal marriage and
OF common dangers, the situation
rs little complicated by riyalries
In the Banat. Here there is one of
the most bewildering racial COM
piications in Europe. In this mar
row district about the size of Mas
sachusetts and Rhode Island. Ru-
manians. Magyars. Serbs, Germans
live In hopeless ethnic confusion.
After the Hapsburg collapse
Hungary. the owner, together with
Serbia and Rumania. put in claims
for the province. The Serbs onlv
claimed the districts north of the
Danube and east of the Thesis
facing their capital. Belgrade. The
Rumanians, whose racial represen-
tation was largest. claimed the
whole province. alleging not unrea-
sonably that II was an economic
unit. The Magyars, whose racial
representation was smallest, claim
ed the province as a matter of right
based on 1000 years of possession.
In the end one more wretched
compromise left the whole dfspute
unsettled. The Rumanians received
most of the province but the Serbs
obtained a slice between the Dam
ube and the Theiss: railway lines
were disregarded. frontiers were
drawn without regard to anything
save the ethnographic map. AS for
the Hunsarians. they were lobbed
on with corner near Szegedin,
just a minor fragment of what
was once all theirs.
Made Tkr>~V. - xu..
Neither the Rumanians nor the