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The new crisis which threatens to ship-1 wreck the Treaty of Peace in the very hour I when that storm-tossed and much-tri e d barque ig ;(.i last in sight oi port—whither, &mon?t other. the German ejnoys have baen bidden to greet her—had not been un- ,ae4l bl,-Ideii tr? ,Yeet fier--h& 4 tiot been un- I are many o: t? ?uer-tions whi<? b':e h?d to be, ccmpvatively rapidly, surveyed and settled by the Big Four and their lesser *atel- lit,et; how difficult it is to settle equitably and to the satisfaction of all parties matters to which the touchstone of plain dealing and fair play is applied. Wilson, Lloyd George, and CJenieneeau have no other motive at heart than the eradication of all possible sources of future strife The- reversion to the Adriatic Sea coast of the defunct Dual Monarchy, 3 matter of vital import to Italy, and to the nascent Jugo-Slav, or Southern Slavonic. State, is one of these. The net result of their actions so far haa been to irritate a faithful and sorelv-tried Ally, and to break up publicly the harmony of which a semblance, at least has been main- tained at the critical moment when we. bavt- commanded o)'] defeated foes t.o recei\ e and accept our terms. When honest men faU out., thiev?H come by their o?n." (erman satisfaction at the prospect of creating new combinations opened up by the isolation of Italy from her Allies, jad her enmity with a powerful southern Slavonic State. is obvious. Mr. has acted tactlessly and maladrojtly at a delicate moment. With- out questioning the strength of the argu- ments he puts forward to buttress hjs Case J for t.he cession of Fimne to the Southeriii Slave, it. is permi-^iblf to condemn the issue of nn appeal to the It-Rlian people over the he-aris of their accredited representatives in Paris. That if an affront to the latter on ;ch Orlando lays a just stress in bis counter-mnnifefto. lie replies to it by I returning to Home, to obtain the specific mandate of the Italian Parliament. It is nt least hopeful that he will return, and that the negotiations to effect a compromise may be resumed. President Wilson's implication that the Italian people may not necessarily be identified with the demands of their spokes- men finds a rejoinder in Italian popular de- monstrations whose cries raise a similar in-I terrogation in regard to Mr. Wilson himself, ana his relation to his own people. The bro-'fd outlines of the crisis can be I rketchf.j without much difficulty. Italy v.-aged war to round off her territorial and ethnical integrity by incorporating the Ital- ian fringes and tassels on the eastern Adriatic seaboard, whic!) wprc then under AuMro-H angaria n rule. Incidentally, she Bought to rectify strategical disadvantages which told cruelly against her in war and were a cons'an' threat in peace. She entered into the pact of London, with Prance and Britain, by which certain of her claims were recognised. these claims; thp pac t was bayed upon the sumption t.hat :1 hostile, if defeated. Austro- Hunga-na'n Empire would continue to exist, after the war t.he claim to Fiume is i-,n ad- ditional demand the new collect ion of States which replace. the Dual Monarchy is. at the moment, friendly; some have even hern Allies; and so much of the full Italian filntm has been conceded that, the exclusion of Fiume won'd mean that only the sH?htcst fraction of the Ita.ian population would he under f r ? i ij'e. That grievance, or. I hardship, exist? JI) the rase of a dozen Europe a n countries and is not resented by tbèm immod-erlttely. Fiume, ;?.s 3 town, is certainly predom- inantly Italian But ran we condemn the Southern, Slavonic States for pressing -5 claiui tn it when it is tho one port, of importance  that is !n to hrm': Serbia quarrelled with Austria over her inability to obtain ;IJI outlet on the Advj;;tk; a transference of the role, of rJist'Hi'i.ionif-i to Italy would jw■ r petuate an ojd feud in a new gllise, J t. is tru3 that Ru'Tinnia and Hungary are said TO favour the cession r.F Fionje to Italy. But t!umajiia.h?;.h'.o':i itild its a 1.,It"l Rumania ha:, h ■; o< as ø La,tin 'I St?f? is predigp?pd to the Italian ca?e; Hungary. a late enemy, i$ not indisposed to TKakethe fate of Fiune, her own speciaj por' ?w)-i? .f. Iwid the dominad partner- th j [) in the Dual Monarchy. ,1 standing wur<e of ?uarre} between 71;» y and Jugo-Siavia, We all remember wjt-h gratitude that Italy hd bcex always our in'rd, m pea.ce and war—our oidest fricjd and we de- Fu-e h?r to believe also t,?at the same friend- ship on our part- hap persisted unbroken, from the her cc da-, of Garibaldi and zim. Mc rerognise her mora! <oUrftge 1V, t'll, tering the M ar when and Britain were balked and baftied in when the .Russian collapse WAP 'ommeucing. when '?aJhpoh wa? billng. We rognise th? i?.- verity u? her to&t.—?er h?tf a miHion'dc?d amongst 37 millions- the oppressive weight of her financial burdens, ihe sufferings or-f her peopic in ttH war-on coal. even for their hosp.U;U. in (•>« depth of a rigoious winter, with food acutely .v-arce Cc.:<r. and at J.at, the actual invasion and devas- tat.1011 of pan of a rich province by the enemy. an 1 1-air breadth es0.;p; tvom ai new Cannae dHt might hrwo again brought the modern ivirLMrians t.) the w*Us of Rome But. we must, nevertheless, realise thai the demand for Fiume is extreme, and tii t a little foiocaranee would leniove an almo t, obtain chronica IK' "own sore,. ^niiu v ji- i the pain if not the deadlines of a cancer into the side of the new Southern SlavonIC, State, and saddling the future Italy with a constant liability to a new w,-r. i Unets ,of Italy hcr:<df, the g.in a,p.PfaI8; hardly worth the probable cost. But the detachment and care for the future that 1 wrne easy to us are not so readi!v f' n rI in the cr.se of a passionately patriotic 'people, | just now peculiarly sensitive, and infla.n- mable. commencing to realise the pain ;!n.1 smart of their wounds, and not unstirred bv that. storm which ha-s wrecked Eastem Europe, and in so doing ha. torn up the old order of things and cast it adrift upon a "ar)i" and uncharted sea. Mr. WDson's slip is unfortuilateiv one of ose accidents which are a pi. to deflect the. course of history. All agree that it rup- ured at least for ? time being, a pro- j ?ged and d?.?in.d attempt to di-.ver ? acceptable coin proyr, ? is irr?tins to reaect that th,s excursion into open d,p)om and th,* ?h?!.n? of tbe cre- dent? ? '? one of the Big Four hv .notber mernb': should have been FO inopportune, ,f<? Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Orlando wri ?e??t-d P- n ? me?.'< .? i_ vate deli i Deration that had been successful in the composition of w many other delicate and ¡ dangerous matters. It is indispensable that statesmen and people should, at this sharp test of their mutual loyalty, and of their I adhesion to high ideals, preserve a cool and tolerant judgment. In Italv pooular resent- "»ent focusses itself upon Mr. Wilson, who win, in his turn. doubtless recognise that the way of the peacemaker is httrd. and per haps, remernber adso n proverb that much of the time of the wise is spent ;,n undoinr the harm done by the good. The Conference will probably survi\-e the 51S, but it is not wholly amiss that we phould j have publicly revea led the diffi- culties, t.ie disappointments, and the heart- burnings which have made up it" history. fn our treatment of the sinill lar problems of and Ftume, we have offended a lriendJv nation and an Ally, and have satis- fied only the enemy, who feels that, in re- of 1.1", V '1 .r;+ Other and even thornier questions rema in. hrYt, there is no reason whv the future of Kiao Chau, for ex nnpJe. should be permitted to interpose another delay. We were committed at the outset to a J'teace based upon idealism, Upon the abatract. r principles laid down in the Fonrteen Points. The alternative to that was "a conqueror's peace, based pnmari'.v upon the interests (and apprelierisiotis) of the conq uerors re- lying more upon military and territo ia I safeguards than upon the i, -,hit Europe was so sickened of bloodshed iha-tl. granted the removal of :rpa ilY rn "0 cca- sioas for national and racial d'scontcnt, peace by arbitration and discussion could be preserved in the future. The French, who never believed that the leopam ai. change his spots or the German his nature, f provided the first protest against this ex- alted theory. And all through the Confer- ence we have seen the same clash of violent human feeling ,-d emotion with the dis- passionate serenities which Mr. Wilson enunciates. A few days ago Lord Denbigh, in a sug- gestive little letter, urged that t.be world was. in effect, plagued with "idealism": 1 and, after enumerating the misfort/unee. domestic and external, which h-ave befallen Europe in the pursuit of various ideals, hinted that we would be happier if we were a little less imaginative. That is a dictum which Jxx- little chance of acceptance in a volcanic epoch such as the present, but, point is given to the opinion by the world of trouble in which the Congress caat itself when it. set forth to refashion the ea-i-th on the hasiis of resounding and lofty Mr. W;!son may find his justification from a future generation, which may assess better tihan we can hope to do whether he has helped to Lay a broad and stable foundation for a new and happier Europe. But at the moment W'lsonianism I;i at a discount. We fnight the war sustained by a mood too rarified to endure, and in the triumph of the ensuing reaction, spiritual and mental, we relapse, naturally into a temper much more severely practica I and material. The peace that is coming bids to be a mongrel blend of idealism and realism, :eaving Europe to set about its reconstruc- lion devoid, in the caM of the Allies, of the ftimulus and comfort of M full reaping of the frtrts of victory, and devoid, in the case of the enemy, of a consciousness of jut punish- ment for the past, pei)ance for the present. and restraint for the future. — —

CHARMING SWANSEAI WEDDING.…

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