Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1920 — UNITED STATES STANDS FIRM [ARTICLE]

UNITED STATES STANDS FIRM

Textof Correspondence Bstween Wilson and Premiers Made Public. SPLIT RESTS WITH ALLIES Now Up to Great Britain, France and Italy to lleclde Whether to Yield or Permit Withdrawal of Peace Treaty. Washington, Feb. 27.—“ The government of the United States stands pat.” This was the official construction placed on the correspondence between the United States government and the governments of Great Britain and France with relntlon to the Adriatic settlements. It is up to Great Britain, France and Italy to decide whether to yield to President Wilson in the Adriatic controversy or to stand pat and thereby cause him to consider withdrawal from the senate of the peace treaty with its league of Nations covenant The president demands the allies return to the Adriatic plan of December 0 to which he and the British and Italian premiers subscribed. Correspondence Made Public. The full correspondence was made public by the state department. It consists of the Joint memorandum signed on December 9 by Premier Clemenceau for France, Sir Eyre Crowe for England and Undersecretary of State Frank L. Polk for the United States; the British and French revised proposals of January 14, the text of the cable sent on January 19 by the secretary of state asking the point of view of the British and French governments In undertaking to dispose of the Adriatic and Russian questions before ascertaining the views of the American government; the statements of the French and British prime ministers of January 2T; President Wilson’s protest note of February 10, in which he threatened to withdraw the German treaty from the senate if the British-French attitude was persisted in; the reply of the French and British prime ministers of February 17 and President Wilson’s note of February 24, which brings the correspondence up to date. The whole correspondence makes about 12,000 words. , '

Memorandum of Dec. 9. The Joint memorandum of December 9 subscribed to by France, Great Britain and the United States, and which it was supposed had settled the Adriatic question, provided In substance the following: Istria was to have a frontier which, while “widely overstepping" the recognized ethnical line between Italy and Jugo-Slavla, would have given to Italy more than 300,000 Jugo-Slavs and further extended eastward to give Italy territory in the region of A,lbona, also including Jugo-Slavs, as against 40,000 Italians to be placed under the League of Nations. The so-called Assling region was to be permanently demilitarized. There was to be a free state of Flume under control and for future determination by the league with full autonomy for the city of Flume. The city of Zara was to have complete sovereignty under the league and complete control of Its own affairs. The Islands of the Pelagosa group, Lisea and the small islands west of It, Lussin and Unle, were to pass to Italy on demilitarized basis, with local autonomy for the Slavs in Lissa. Italy was to have a mandate over the independent state of Albania under tlie league. Albania’s frontiers north and east were to be those fixed by the London conference of 1918, but the south was left for negotiation. Greece was to have certain territory, the lines of some of which were to be left for negotiation. The city of Valona and such hinterland strictly necessary to defepse and economic de-' vetopment were granted to Italy in full sovereignty. Rebuke to Premiere. In the note of President Wilson to the aHted premiers, discussing the Adriatic question, he said: “If agreement on what is just and reasonable Is not to determine International issues; if the country possessing the most endurance in pressing Its demands rather than the country armed with a just cause is to gain the ■ upport of the powers; if forcible seizure of coveted areas is to be permitted and condoned and Is to receive ultimate justification by creating a situation so difficult that decision favorable to the aggressor is deemed a practical necessity; If deliberately Incited ambition Is, under the name of national sentiment, to be rewarded at the expense of the small and weak; if, in a word, the old order of things which brought so many evils .on the world is still to prevail, then the time