UNITED STATES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 192, 9 May 1919, Page 8

UNITED STATES

President Wilson. .Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States and Chief of the American Delegation. Mr. , Wilson, tho greater part of whose career has been spent as president of the great American University of Princeton, was elected to tho Presidency; of the United States-in 1912, and entered the White House in the spring of 1913. His only previous public office had been tliat of Governor of Now Jersey, where he made a fine record as a reformer iu a State the politics of which had not been particularly savoury. Mr. Wilson is a statesman essentially o£ the Liberal school.- Before tho war ho wrought in the, United States a nuinlier of useful reforms. Of his policy of neutrality during the first phases of the war there is no need to'speak. It was prompted partly, by a desire to "bo true to tho.old American tradition of aloofness from extraAmerican affaire, partly by a sincere belief that by remaining out of the war ho could best bring to the work of recon- ( struction the moral and material resources of his country. In,the autumn, of 1916 Mr.\ Wilson was re-elected on a platform in which the maintenance of . neutrality was the chief plank. His.t'esire and that of a majority of the Amerlcan voters to avoid war did not, however, wevent a declaration oi hostility against Germany in April, 1917, after .Germany, by a recrudescence of submarine savagery, had enabled him conclusively to prove to his people that half measure, •ere useless and that it .was the dear i e^t r fKafoM^ f hw for universal military service, backcd by a measure 6f war finance, gencroue enough to finance by loans Allied purchases in tho United States, as well,as the vast American war machine. Having organised man-power on. a national basis, the President attacked nidus rial mobili-' sation on the same scale. There was it is true, during the autumn and winter of 1917 and 1918 considerable .difficulty in etnrting the vast machine of American war effort. There were disappointments and dolays over the air programme and other things. But during the summer of 1918 tho United States was,, at the Biiprenio crisis, able to produce in 1 ranee the men needed, and, had the war continued, her output of men and material ! would by next year have become irresistible Tlfo President is unlikely to flay long at the Conference; but so long as ! he does stay he w-ill play an import ! part, not only by reason of Ins gnat ! office, but also because he has m a special i b nse made the cause of the new dem e-i-acv his own. Without Ins championship it is doubtful whether the League of Nations would have attained the 1 gh place that it has now got,in the mo gramme of the Conference, while the lnth o the powerful opposition party in tho .' spokesmen. ,

Mr.- R. Lansing. Robert Lansing is Secretary <f Sto and chief member of Mr : A 1 inet Though in the old dajs ot the American Commonwealth tho Secretary of"s ate dealt with many domestic matters, his functions now correspond wsenHaliv to those of a Foreign Minister. Mr. Lansing is tgr training..well quail-

Eed as a delegate A lawyer, by pror. f&sioif, 'he early .specialised.'iu tho-in-teriiatioiial Held, ami liiiis' frequently..ie-' presented his ..Government in internav tional cases, in 1893 Mio. TvasV- junior counsel iu tho Behring Sea arbitration at Paris. Ho was later. counsel in .the Behring Sea Claims. Commission;•"'.',.ln 1905 ho wont to The Hague to help in presenting the Amorictin case. ,in the famous North Atlantic fisheries Arbitration. '.Froin 1912 to 1914 he was.United States agent in ! tho- Anglo-American Claims Arbitration. Mr. Lansing succeeded Mr. Bryan as iSecretary of State iu the spring of 1915, So far as matters of policy go, the President has been hie own Foreign Minister; but iu the'tangled negotiations of tho last' phase of American neutrality, he had in Mr. Lansing an able and level-headed lieutenant. Quiet and courtly in manner, wellversed in the protocol of international with an intimate knbwledg of America'n diplomacy and policy dur-ing'the-war, Mr. Lansing's value, especially , after the departed of Jiis chief, should'bo very great..! ' . . " " Colonel House. '■ ' _ _ - . \ '..Colonel I!; M. House has never held any. official , position:in-, the; -United States... Ho has, -however,.-in.tho past few years, been the .most influential and the. most.:: discussed figure, next to .the President, in American public life. Born in- Texas and possessed of a private ff rtun'o- sufficient for his- modest . needs, Colonel House early interested, himself- m the- politics: of his State: -..Never .seeking anything for:-himself, endowed.-, with great political sagacity, -with a keen judgment of human nature, aiid. with that extraordinary momory.of facts and faces that is asset in public affairs,'he' , reached a'position; smoothly aud silently, of almost-dictatorial'power iiv tho councils of tho De.riflc'rntic Party in -liis 'State.' Colonel House's debut in national'affairs synchronised with; that of'Mγ". Wilson. .Convinced-'.hat Mi'. Wilfibn was the : predestined leader of-tho Democratio'Party, he became his friend, and began'to become"-'.his -counseller dufing'tlib days of-the future President's candidature. During the'days-of" American- neutrality Colonel' House inadeifrd-. quent trips abroad lα-get- into- cdhtict with the leading men on' both; skies, anil glean first-hand- facts '"-about the war. Whilb : in'the'-Un'ited 'States ho saw m h'is fiat in New York countless- people, end .received countless" lettere.,in regard to every phase of-international • affairs. Some months aftor the United State« entered the war Colonel House was sent abroad toy the. President ua his personal representative, ami there, can '!« little doubt that 'during his'sta'y -in-Paris' and London : in the closing weeks.-of -1917 he did'a good (leal : to prepare the way -for ■Marshal Foch's. appointment of G«nei-.vl-issimo. On 'tho'- present'bq;a;ib'n" lie precedM'the President to geveral ■weeks,, and since his arrival lias been his chief lieutenant" in Paris; "■ His office, at the Hotel de' Crillon is the clearing houee"'of'virtually'all the important ma'ttere that come to : the American; delegation.'. After the President- , eaves'Coloael House .will stay on -in-Paris.'.a? his per.sonal representative.-'■-. -..' ' ,- -' ;, 'M..Pbliti3, Greek Foreign Minister, w a close.friend,and collaborator: of.Venizelos, 'with whom'he has' been" associated through, all the recent Vicissitudes of that statesman's career. He helped in the formaUuii of tho Provisional., Government at. Salonika,.and returned with If. Arenizelos to; Athens. :: . ... ■, ■•.-. -. ...

"POLAND ■••;■•.,: • 11. Dmoweki, for many years a leader of-the Russian Poles and a Conservative iri politics, was •« member-of the first Duma and author.of a.well-known work; on the Polish questio'n. He came* to Western Europe as unofficial 'representa--tive of the Russian Poles in the early' > part of the war/and subsequently helped to form the Polish National Committee, of which he has been ihs president. ■■.■".". Dr. Moniz, Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, was. chief of tho Portuguese Delegation. He is a doctor of the Medical Faculty, Lisbon. A. great friend of Sidonio Paes, the late President, he entered political life at an early age, and was frequently offered ..portfolios in different Governments, but only accepted .the. portfolio <of vForeign. Affairs, some months ago at the urgent insistence of his friend Paes. . ■ . ■'■'■ ; '- : -RUMANIA ■ ' M. Bratiano, Rumanian Prime Minis-, ter and head of the Liberal Party,-was from the-' beginning of the war a con. vinced supporter of the Allies/preserved a , prudently friendly attitude ' towards .. ■ them ■'■ during the' period ■ of-' neutrality, concluded with them the treaty on the, basis of which Rumania declared war it. the summer'.of 191G, and organised Rumanian resisttincb 'to the Auetro..German invasion. . His conduct/after Rumania had been compelled to sign tlis Treaty of Bucharest'was extremely courageous. -.. ,"■■'.■■■■. M. Misu is the most distinguished living Rumanian diplomatist. By origin- , q Macedoniitu Rumane. he adopted Ru-; •manian citizenship and represented his , country for many years in .Balkan .capj*tals. He" gained distinction as Minister ni Sofia, Vienna, and London, where he carried on with tho British Government the negotiations relating ,to Rumanian . participation in tho war;../ . .■';.'..'..../■''■ SERBIA ■■:•.': M. Pashitch, founder,and leader.of the Serbian Radical Party,.' has played "a •prominent part in Serbian.internal politics, and was Primo Hmieier-.almost.un-interruptedly from 1905. .until his recent resignation. Ho. conducted Serbian resistance, to the Ausli'b-Hun'gai'ian tariff war of. 1905, directed Serbian.affairs during- the .Bosnian' annexation .crisis of ■ IMS-9, prepared on belialt' of Serbia the Balkan Alliance, of 1912, : and was reBpwisible head of. Serbian affairs .during the wliote of the.war.: Hi? personal con- . ception of the. future, of Serbia'was that Fhe should form.a "Greater Serbia" .by the annexation of the Sorlw of AustriaUungary and of Montenegro rather than that all the Serbs, Croats, and. Slovenes outside-.Serbia should'join her in forming. a united Southern S'av.State.. .

Dr. Ti'iimbitch. Foreign -Minister of the new Serb-Croat-Slovene. kingdom,..was one of the authors, of the Fiiirae* Resolution of 1905. whicji first united the Croats •and Serbs of Austria-Hungary''? On .the eve of war he siicceeclod .in escaping from Austria, and formed with Supilo ami other leading Southern Slavs the South-ern-Slav Committee, of. which he was chosen, president.. In that capacity he concluded with Serbia in July, 1(117, the Declaration of Corfu, which was the preliminary charter of Southern Slav unity ■under the Karagcorgovic Dynasty. He concluded also in March, 1918, with the Italian, deputy Dr. Torre, on behalf of a : comprehensive Italian . Parliamentary Agreement, which .was ratified by the .Heme Congress and approved by Signoi* Oi.lando in April, 1918. Upon the 'formation of the new united Southern Slav ■ Kingdom he was appointed Foreign Min- . isteiv .

._ Dr. Vesnitch is Serh-Croat-Sloveno Minister in Paris. He.was a supporter and friend of M, Pashitch, and was.entrusted with a.special Serbian Mission to the United States after the American . declaration of war.