The Dominion MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1919. A COMPLEX PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 182, 28 April 1919, Page 6

The Dominion MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1919. A COMPLEX PROBLEM

It is too soon to say what effect tho_ dispute over Italy's Adriatic claims will exercise ultimately upon the general course of the peace negotiations, but the existing situation gives not a little cause for anxiety. One decidedly unfortunate result of .President Wilson's action in publishing his manifesto is that it has exposed to the free play of popular passion questions which are not likely to be brought nearer by this means to a satisfactory settlement. It is indicated today that the absence from Pa-ris of the members of the Italian delegation will be temporary and brief, and that hopes of an amicable settlement are still entertained. To this extent the situation is relieved, but in going home Signor Oelando and his . colleagues are avowedly bent not only upon renewing their mandate from the Italian Parliament, but upon inviting such a demonstration by the people as will show unmistakably what Italy wants. ■ The members of the Italian delegation are no doubt able to argue with some force that this lino of action has been forced upon them by President Wilson's appeal to public- opinion in all Allied countries.- But an appeal to popular enthusiasm with its concomitants, in this case of indignation and an aggravated sense of injustice, will hardly make for the jusfc settlement of a question which, as Signor Orlando himself observes, is "of infinite complexity." Anyone who has followed the cablegrams of the last few days must have been struck by the fact that the parties to the .dispute have been content to deal in broad and general terms with the issue raised. While he has emphatically denounced President Wilson's "innovation" in making the disputepublic, the Italian Prime Minister does not seem to have attempted a detailed exposition of the grievances under which Italy allegedly labours. At a. direct view this tendsto prejudice his case by suggesting that he hoped to gain something in secret negotiations which he cannot hope to gain in the light of day, but apparently he relies upon the broad and fully advertised contention that the Adriatic territory claimed 1 by Italy is essential to her national security, and, on that account,, to future peace. Whatevpr the details of the Italian attitude may be it is somewhat extraordinary that in all the hubbub thus far occasioned more attention has not been given to the other side of the question—that is to say, to the national claims and 1 aspirations of the Jugo-Slavs. The question the Peace Conference is called updn to settle i$ not simply how far it is justified in, going in attempting to satisfy Italy's tural desire for national security; but how far, in pursuing that object, it is justified, in limiting the freedom of the Jugo-Slavs to shape their own political destinies. The Jugo-Slav* States consist of Serbia and Montenegro, together with provinces of the late Hapsburg Empire extending north-west, 'between the Adriatic coast and the- River Drave, to the Italian eastern frontier. The population of these States, consisting. mainly, though not exclusively, of Slavs, is variously estimated at from twelve to fifteen millions. It is the expressed desire of the Slav majority.in the sovcral States to enter into a more or less closely-drawn political federation, in which Serbia, would bo the most important unit. In determining the conditions of Adriatic sovereignty much, . of course, depends upon the character of this federation and the policy it may be expected to adopt,

Supportinff their demand for Dalmafcia, a Slav-populated province fronting the eastern shore of the Adriatic, the Italians have asserted that a peaceful and inoffensive policy on the part of the Jugo-Slav federation is by no means to be taken for granted. This contention 'is elaborated in considerable detail in an article in the Fortnightly Heview by Signoe VißGiNio Gayda, He declares, 'amongst other things, .that some sections of the JugoSlavs, notably the Croats, freely became instruments of Hapsburg oppression, and that Jugo-Slav divisions to the last put up the stoutest resistance to the Italian armies. At the same timS he quotes utterances by a number of JugoSlav representatives, including Serbians, as showing that they object not only to Italy's obtaining the Adriatic lands she is now claiming, but to her possession of Istria and territory west of the Isonzo. His general contention is that the Jugoslavs are the determined and bitter enemies of Italy, and that, assuming their programme to be carried out and the Italian claims rejected, . . A after four .rears of war the position of Italy in the Adriatic would be rendered not better, but worse. All tho eastera .Adriatic shore from Fiume to Albania would be in the possession of ono State alone confronting Italy. Thus, pven a longer strotch of that shore would bo under the Jugo-Slav State than' was under tho old Austria. And with the union of Mount Lorcen to the defensive system of the Bay of Cattaro, we should have opposed to Italy military positions that are amongst the most formidable in the world.

Stgnoe Gaydai hardly strengthens his case in going on, as he does, to argue that the real clanger to Italy in these strategic conditions would appear if France became the economic "and'therefore the political" protector of the Jugo-Slav States. While he states the facts of the strategic situation very lucidly, Signor contentions as a whole. seem to be somewhat farfetched. Even, however, if they were firmly established the necessity of doing justice to the Jugo-Slavs would still appear as one of the main heads of the Adriatic problem. It is unnecessary to emphasise the claims of Serbia and Montenegro. The claim to consideration of the Jugo-Slavs lately under Hapsburg rule is simply that they desire to link up politically with their near kinsmen, and to enjoy unfettered independence in the territories in which they constitute an overwhelming majority of the population. As against the evidences of hostility to cited by Signor Gayda, it was reported not long ago by a Manchester Guardian correspondent that the Jugo-Slavs are quite, ready to accept an arrangement under whicli possible naval centres would be neutralised and disarmed. Such measures undoubtedly offer the best hope of a settlement which would make Italy secure and be just to too Jugo-Slavs, and at the same time

should- tend to reconcile the largely artificial hostilities which divide the two races. It is fairly obvious that tie dispute which now so seriously threatens Allied unity at the Peaco Conference is a legacy from the days when the Hapsburgs ruled by playing off one nationality against another.