Evening star., 1927-09-04
BY yIsCOu>T ROTHERMERE,

brother Oh the tdte IsUiu NUIthCiAS.
Y ONDON-Paramount with the
Allies during the war was the
desire that when peace came
IL it should be permanent. What
ever else victory might bring,
the men and women of the allied ma.
tions wanted it to insure that there
should be no more Alsace-Lorraines to
keep the war spirit smouldering.
1t was the professed aim of the
Peace Conference, when 1t gathered
in Paris in 1919, to rearrange the map
of Europe on a basis of self-determin-
nation. But as it's work went on this
principle faded from sight. The re-
suit has been that Central Europe to-
day is piled high with the materials
for a new conflagration.
The primary cause of this is the
partitioning of the Hungarian nation
among its neighbors by the Treaty or
Trianon imposed upon Hungary In
June, 1920, which transferred in COM
pact masses contiguous with the main
body of the Hungarian people. 60O,.
900 Hungarians to Rumanla tout OF
a total of 1,750, 900, most of whom are
intermingled with the Rumaniansl
.OOO. 900 to CZechoslovakia and 400,.
900 to Jugoslavia.
In the peace treaty made with Ger.
many the principle of self-determlna-
tion was so thoroughly applied that
plebiscite was even held in Schleswlg
10 revise the frontier which the Prus-
slams had imposed upon the Danes III
1864.
But with the signing of the Treaty
of Versailles. the principal Allied
statesmen relaxed their efforts. The
task of settling with their chief en-.
envy had been a prodigious one. Their
mowers of personal application were
exhausted. The affairs of their own
countries urgently claimed their az
tention. The drafting Of peace terms
with Germany's minor allies seemed
to them a secondary matter they
might well leave to the subordinate
members of their delegations.
Peace Work Half.Done.
For similar reasons the worlds in.
terest in peacemaking evaporated, and
the light of publicity which had been
concentrated on the work of the con.
ference was withdrawn. In reahty
only half the work of restoring a last
ing peace to Europe had been per-
formed. But the importance OF what
remained to be done was overshadowed
by achievement already accomplished,
and the remaining treaties were lett
TO be drafted behind closed doors ana
signed amid general Indifference many
months later in various suburbs OF
Paris.
This negligent procedure suited very
well the intrigues of various minor ma
ucnalities which had become associated
with the allied cause and which stood
to profit considerably from the settle
nlents thus obscurely made.
Representatives of these new-fangled
nationalities Immediately began to ar
rive in large numbers in Paris. There,
with the aid of certain doctrinaire
pampheteers Of allied nationality, they
set themselves to pulling every avail
able string to insure that the particu-
lar peace treaty affecting their own
small state should be as profitable as
possible to their public and private in
terests. This was how grave abuses
containing the sure seed OF future
wars crept into the central European
peace settlement.
These abuses were committed in the
name of self Ii that
principle had been strictly observed
all around, there would have been no
cause for complaint. But the creation
of Czechosiovakia was an artificial
operation only carried through by out
raging the very principle OF national
ity it was supposed to serve.
There never had been state~or ma
tion of Czechoslovakia, although in
the middle ages there had existed
Kingdom of Bohemia. whose independ-
ence ended in 1920. and whose last
Queen was a British Princess, Eliza
beth, daughter of James /. The from
tiers Of this state, however, had no
resemblance to the postwar creation
of CZechoslovakia.
Inspired at Pittsburgh.
The union of the Czechs with the
Slovaks had only been brought about
as the result of a meeting held in
Pittsburgh, Pa, during the war, at
which the Slovaks, upon the pledge
OF autonomous home rule for their
people in any future Czechoslovak
state that might be formed, agreed to
support the demands OF CZechs when
q peace conference should assemble.
The conditions of this pledge, like
those of the subsequent Treaty of
Trianon, have not been carried out by
the present Czechoslovak Govern
ment, with the result that bitter re-
ordinations are now being exchanged
between the two chief racial sections
of the new republic.
To find territory for this hybrid
state the peace delegates at Paris
were reduced to expedients in direct
conflict with their proclaimed princi-
pie of self elfdetermination. Not only
were 5000, 900 Austro-Germans incor-
porated in it but its borders were ex-
tended to the south by the inclusion
OF a compact mass OF 1,0O0,O00 Hun
garians of entirely different race and
language from the Czechs.
These people and the Hungarian dele
CATION at the Peace Conference pro-
tested bitterly but unavailingly against
their fate. Its injustice was tacltiy
admitted by the allies at the time in
a covering note, which contained a
promise that the frontiers laid down
should, If necessary, be revised.
No sooner had the CZechs got con-
troll Of the Hungarian population
ceded to them than they began to
subject 1t to oppression by the side OF
which the rmanization of Alsace-
Lorraine pales into insigniicance. The
CZechosloVak Government adopted to-
ward its Hungarian minority popula-
tion a deliberate policy of expropria-
tion Of property. which has continued
unchecked up TO the present.
Tho. compensation for the seized
property was so insignificant that II
was virtually confiscated. No finan-
cial accounts of this appropriation
1oNC CNCA DtSH iiCi Ai"'
repeated appeals to the Czech govern.
ment resulted in their production. IL
only half the stories told about these
land deals are true, the Czech govern
ment is responsible for tolerating some
Of the worst frauds that have ever
taken place in the public life of
Europe.
No Heed to Protests.
No heed was paid to expostulations
Of the - members of protest whom
this hungarian minority despite the
dragooning of the electorate by the
.r1a,.orr, r,nn,tl rotiIrr,s fo ho iNxocl, Ia r.