YoungstownskeÌ SlovenskeÌ noviny = Youngstown Slovak news. (Youngstown, Ohio) 1910-1940, 1932-02-26


behaved just as heroically. Consid
ering the fact that they are not, by
any means, one of the largest racial
groups in the United States, Ameri-
can Croats can be proud of the NUM-
Der of their men in the American
army who have received the Congress
sional and other medals.
On only one front did the Croats
Of the Austro-H Hungarian army fight
willingly and bitterly. That was the
Italian front, where three army corps,
constituted mostly of Croats, opposed,
under the command of the Croatian
General Borojevich, great army OF
nearly three million Italians. They
did it, because they knew that the
Italian intentions were not to give a
square deal to the Croats, but to rob
them of their lands. Later events
proved the justice of these expecta-
tions
The American government knew all
these things. President Wilson
fought the old world politicians for
nonths, in. his. ehdeavor~te insure the
freedom, of every nation and, there
by, the peace of the world.
The American soldiers and Ameri-
can commissions kept their govern
ment well informed as to the develop
ments in Croatia. Z. They also in
formed it as to ,oltat people live on
the eastern coast of the Adriatic. The
American government also knew, that
what once was Roman Empire is not
now Italian territory, nor is it neces-
sarily inhabited by, Italians. ,.,.,G,
Because of the stubborn persist
ence of the Italian delegation, how
ever, and to save the peace confer
ence from disaster, from the living
body of Croatia her right hand was
cut off Istria, Fiume, cara, and sew
eral purely Croatian islands sand
given to Italy. This they called: JUS
tice!
But what happened with the body ?
On the pretext of being one of the
belligerents, Croatia was first dis
armed, then urged to rush into the
arms of her Slavic neighbor, Serbia
Armless, believing the promises OF
the Allies and trusting that Wilson'S
proclamations about the freedom and
self elf-determination of small nations
would be criterions of future politics
Croatia entrusted her future into the
hands of those Allies and of their
strongest leader America. But,
under the very eyes of the American
army and navy, and after the signing
OF the armistice, the Italian army con-
tinued to occupy Croatian territories
in the West, while Serbians did the
same in the East and the South
Croats were urged not to resist;
they were told that their destiny is
not in the hands of an ambitious gen
eral or a foolish minister for foreign
affairs, but in the Peace Conference,
at which America will predominate.
America, led by President Wilson,
who in her name, on Jan. %, 1917
proclaimed to the world and to the
subjugated peoples under the domina-
tion of the Central powers especially
that:
eNo pedce can last, or ought to
last, aotich does not recognize
and accept the principle that GOO
eTnanents derjVe all their just
poaoers from the consent of the
governed, and that no right any
Uhere eTists to hand peoples
from sovereignty to sovereignty
as If they ,0ere property"
At the. time when Croats trusted
their destiny into the hands Of Amer
ica, there was nothing in the Ameri-
can history to cause them to think
even for a minute, that they did il
lfoolishly. Nobody ever thought that
America, after all the bloodshed fol
the emancipation Of small nations and
the consequent lasting peace in Eu'
rope, would leave any Of the small ma
tions in question in conditions less
tolerable than even the prewar ones
And yet, Croatia il one Of those mis-
erable nations that has been par
cslled and reparcelled at the peace
conference, sliced mercilessly 70 salts
~ everybody's fancy. and, whateve