Evening star., 1933-01-15
WAR THREATS BREWING
In .DALMATIAN DISPUTE
Danger of Inflaming Another General
Conflict Is Seen i'm Albano-Italian
Tariff Union Project.

ABOUT REVISION OF the peace LreaLleA
The Italians are as resolved to acquire
Dalmatia as the Germans are TO recover
the Corridor. And the fact that the
French have supported the status quo
both en- the Vistula and the Adrtatio
has been resented with equal violence
in Germany and IN Italy.
At Locarno the Germans indicated
their willingness to accept the loss Of
Alsace-Lorraine as permanent. Yet
since Locarno they have more than
once made clear that enduring Franco
German reconciliation and cooperation
were only to be assured provided the
French would abandon their defense Of
Polish territorial integrity. And in re-
cent days it is reported the Italians
have offered to recognize French posi-
ton in northern Africa as permanent
provided France would similarly recog-
n1ze the Adriatic as an Italian sphere
of interest.
The difficulty in both cases, as the
French perceive, arises from the fact
tnat the nations now in possession of
the Corridor and Dalmatia, namely the
Poles and the southern Slavs, would
night rather than agree to revision.
Thus French assent to treaty revision
would mean no more than Clearing the
way for new war, Moreover, as Austro-
German tariff union would have
spelled the isolation and almost COM
plete encirclement Of Czechoslovakia.
Albano-I Italian union would bring Italy
within striking distance of Macedonia
and In position TO join hands with the
rBulgarians.
And the Bulgarian and Hungarian
details are equally significant. On the
one hand YugoSlayia, by annexing the
Batchka, acquired a district with q
large and purely Hungarian population.
while on the other, by taking Mace
donia, 1t laid hands upon an even
larger Bulgarian population. Italian
policy thus aims at creating out Of
Albania, Bulgaria and Hungary a COM
oination to match the Little Entente
OF Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Ru-
mania, which is bound closely to France.
The weakness of the Italian sttlia-
ton lies in the fact that the states
IL Is driven to employ, or to try 10
use as Its pawns, are, In the case Of
Hungary and Bulgaria, disarmed by the
peace treaties and, in the case Of AL
bania, too weak to count. In addition,
Italy itself Is without the financial re-
sources to play great role It cannot
make loans or give subventionS In any
considerable measure.
In reality all that Italy can accom-
plish Is to prevent any general settle
ment. In the larger view, the Italians
nope eventually to establish political
supremacy from Vienna to Salonica.
But to achieve this they must prevent
Germany from realizing union with
Austria and France from establishing
through the Little Entente her own
system IN the Danubian Basin. Thus
Italy stood with France aRainst Ehe
Anschluss year and o hall ago end
with Germany against the Ffench-
Danubian project last Spring.
Playing with Fire.
But II Yugoslavia should presently
become o closely united state. lis irl-
evitable rise In population and strength
would not only constitute a eompieta
barrier to Italian influence In the Dam
uoian Basin, but would make It Q dam
gerous rival on the Adriatic Therefore
the immediate play of the italians IN
to exert every possible influence to re-
taro Yugoslavia DEVELOPMENT.
The Italians are visibly playing with
nre because war with Italy would
probably unite the southern Slavs as
nothing else could and, as all Serbian
history has shown, odds have exercised
little influence upon Slav action. THUS
lt Is literally true that a border incl
dent or brawl In Tirana, the Al
banian capital, might produce a new
European crisis fatally reminiscent of
that which followed the Serajevo af-
fair.
At bottom, too, the Slay- Italian uues-
ton Is today insoluble because, while on
the one hand the Italians are resolved
to acquire Dalmatia and shut the Yugo-
SlayS out from the sea altogether, ON
the other the Slavs are equally resolved
not only to hold Dalmatia, but also to
acquire Trieste, Pola and Fiume-in
point, all the old Austrian land between
the Italian frontiers Of 1914 and 1919.
And their resolution Is fortified by the
fact that in this border district live up-
wards of three-quarters of a million
Slavs whose lot under Italian rule since
the war has been far from happy.
Granted that at the moment q new
war growing out of the Adriatic dispute
Is possible. although highly unlikely, re-
cent events have been and remain dis
turbing because they indicate how far
of Is any possibility Of peaceful read
Justment In Europe. Like the Polish
Corridor, the region at the head of the
Adriattc Is the scene of dispute between
peoples and races whose present pur-
poses and policies are irreconcilable.
Given the bonds that bind the princi-
pals to other nations, were actual COLI
sion to take place, it is hard to see how
another general war could be avoided.
Copyright, 1881