RE-DRAWING THE MAP

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10284, 20 May 1919, Page 7

RE-DRAWING THE MAP

WAR'S HAVOC

REARRANGING NATIONAL BOUNDARIES.

The map of the world will have to be redrawn after tho Peace Conference. Most of' the changes will be made in Europe, but immense tracts of territory in Asia, and Africa, not to mention large islands in the South Pacific, are to pass under rule-that was not theirs until Gen-many cast the gauntlet before the world, and therefore challenged civilisation to rearrange national bounaries everywhere on fairer and juster principles. It is. an extraordinarily difficult matter, however,' this of fixing the new frontiers. There has been a great deal of declamation by the world'b statesmen with regard to the principle of self-determination; much talk of our intention to arrange -Eiurope "as for as possible, with regard to the principle of nationality and in accordance with tho wishes of tho people who dwell iQ the various disputed areas. In otner words, the idea is for the people of one race to live in the borders of their own country instead of being held, under tho old conditions, under a yoke to which they had been obliged to submit by force majeure. Thus, large portions of the provinces of Transylvania and Bessarabia, hitherto Austrian and Russian, are claimed by Roumania beaause thoir poplations are Roumanian in stock; Italy, along the same lines is supposed to have a right to various portions of Austria and other countries; Serbia is entitled to big slices of territory where the populations are Serbs: the various peoples formerly constituting the Austro-Hunganan linpire claim their independence; Poland does the same. And so on. VERY DIFFICULT WORK. But anybody who has studied the map of Europe according to ethnographical distribution will know that the task of "drawing the line" is extraordinarily difficult. Roumanians, Serbs, ] Bulgars, Greeks, Italians, Poles, Czechs, Albanians, Slovenes, Germans, Croats, the whole medley of races in AustroHungary .and the Balkans, are so mingled in many places that the adjustment of boundaries along racial lines is (simply impossible. pMotreover,, such settlement, in numerous instances, even if it could bo managed, would be unjust to other nations. Small States, by accident of situation, might be given the power of cutting off bigger and much more important nations from the sea, or from proper and deserved commercial development and so forth. Thus, it can-easily be seen, the work of fixing the boundaries of the nations, the new nations and the old ones, will be the work of many years.

CARELESSNESS CAUSES TROUBLE. The main principle, then, is to bring into one fold, under one Government, those people who wish to form a single nation, and in doing so to endeavour to fix boundaries which will not only be convenient for the present, but haypan them the elements of "stability for the future. Too many wars have arisen through carelessness or lack of foresight or inattention to racial Warms m the past for the world to risk similar trouble in the future, and we may be sure that the very greatest effort will be made, now that the world has had its most pointed object-lesson in the horrors of war, to have frontiers fixed Sairly. ■ . . ' Some examples of how more or less careless methods of frontier delimitation have led to trouble may be found interesting. In the main they. ' have been connected with the geographical side of the question, as the raoial considerations now so dominant have not hitherto been given due regard. In the past some frontiers have been drawn in straight lines. The most striking example is that between the United States and Canada, one which has on the whole been remarkably satisfactory, lalthough it has lively associations, especially in regard to the demarcation at the Lake Champhn end of the line, and again at the Eastern end, where the line of the Columbia river was presumed by Britain to mark the boundary, giving the Stato of Washington to Canada. The matter was referred to arbitration, and in thiß nether side got all it contended for.

OTHER "INCIDENTS." Delimitations by map in regard to Africa have given rise to ' incidents when it came to tho question of demarcation as in the case of Britain and Belgium in Central Africa. The line, airily agreed upon by diplomats, proved quite impracticable for the boun-dary-makers, who, as they proceeded with their work, discovered geographic and other factors upsetting the intentions of the treaty makers. Another arrangement in which there had to be give and take on both sides, had. to bo made. And in the delimitation of the German South-West Africa boundary no heed could bo taken of geographical features because the land was not explored, and, had not the Great War interfered and, apparently, settled me question, there would probably hafe been trouble "over particular cimen of tho art of arranging boundaries by drawing a straight lino in ignorance of geographical conditions. History abounds in such incidents. When Russia and Norway were drawing the line west of 'Finland tho Russians arranged to take tho territory along the Tana and Tornea watershed, thinking, it would appear, that this would take them right across to the Atlantic. But it didn't. They had taken too much for granted; they were ignorant of the local geography. A MOVING BOUNDARY. That was the case, by the way, when the Governments of Russia and Britain agreed on a delimitation of their respective spheres of interest north of India and fixed tho line of the Oxus. They little knew the habits of that river, which is in one channel to-day and in another later on. A boundary which "dunno where it are," so to put it, is of no use, and it is to bo hoped that in the now demarcation of boundaries In Asia—say, Armenia and_ Mesopotamia—the powers that bo will pay due hoed to geographical features as well as ethnic considerations and refrain giving the Commissioners tasks impossible of completion and from leaving; loopholes for future controversy. They may take their lesson from' the incidents mentioned, and they may hear in mind tho folly of making "tho line of the hills" a boundary, unless they know exactly what that means. When that definition, was used to define tho boundary between Chili and her next neighbour a few years ago it was found in duo course that if tho line was taken from mountain top to mountain top it formed a sort of crazy qnilt_ patten, and cave to one nation territory lot "within tho meaning of the Act."