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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EMS President Wilson Blocks Plan of the Premiers to Settle the Adriatic Problem. HIS PROTEST IS EFFECTIVE Threatens Withdrawal of America From Peace Treaty Decision Is Reached Concerning Turkey Compromise Ra Iway Bill Before Congress Sale of Former German Liners Is Enjoined. By EDWARD W. PICKARD. The Adriatic in general and Fiume in particular provided the main topic of international discussion last week and there was much excited talk in the world capitals. Premiers Lloyd George. Millerand and Nitti thought they had arranged a neat settlement of the Adriatic trouble and had called on Jugo-Slavia to accept it. with the alternative al-ternative of having the principles of the pact of London applied. But they were reckoning without President Wilson, Wil-son, probably because he seemed to have withdrawn himself to a great extent ex-tent from the discussions over the subject. sub-ject. As soon as he learned what the "Big Three" had done, Mr. Wilson projected himself into the affair with a note that tipped over their apple cart and brought them to a realization that he was still to be considered. He declared that he cnuld not consent to the solution reached by the premiers and called attention to the discrepancies discrepan-cies between it and the settlement of the problem agreed upon in December at the London conference, in which the United States was represented. Then he added a postscript that was the real stinger. Despite denials in Washington, Wash-ington, it Is quite certain that in this postscript Mr. Wilson told the premiers pre-miers that unless they receded from their position he would take into serious seri-ous consideration the withdrawal of the United States from the treaty of Versailles and from the treaty between be-tween the United States and France. Of course a considerable portion of the press In the allied countries was enraged by this note and roundly abused Mr. Wilson, but the statesmen and others well informed recognized the soundness of his position and the fact that the withdrawal of America from further concern in the peace settlement set-tlement would be disastrous. The allied al-lied council sent a reply to Washington Washing-ton which, while it urged the difficulty of inducing the rival interests to consent con-sent to the December solution, was exceedingly ex-ceedingly conciliatory in tone and asked the president to indicate what practical stops can be taken to carry out the earlier agreement, under which Fiume was to be created into a free slate under the League of Nations and the principle of self-determination was to be applied to the Dalmatian coast. The situation is extremely delicate and there are not a few who predict that the outcome will he another war. with Italy and Jugo-Slavia as the contenders. contend-ers. ' From the beginning Mr. Wilson has insisted that Jugo-Slavia should not be shut off from the spa by Italian territory, and in this country, at least, this contention is generally supported. There is no unfriendliness toward Italy, but a feeling that she has already al-ready enough seaports; and the sympathy sym-pathy with the new republic of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is marked. The American government wished to make public the notes exchanged in this affair, and took steps to obtain the consent of Great Britain, France and Italy. This Is in accord with the principle prin-ciple of "open covenants openly arrived ar-rived at" which Mr. Wilson vainly tried to make effective when he went to Paris the first time. It is known that the president holds that America, as a co-belligerent in the war, is actively interested in the settlement set-tlement of the Adriatic dispute, despite the fact that it has not ratified the peace treaty. Also, he holds that we are equally interested In the questions concerning the breaking up of the Turkish empire. Consequently he may have something to say about the agreements agree-ments reached by the supreme council last week that the sultan shall be permitted per-mitted to retain Constantinople and to reside there, provided the massacres of Armenians are discontinued; and that the Dardanelles and the Bosphor-us Bosphor-us 'shall be internationalized. It is not known, however, that be opposes these arrangements. It is said that in the future all sessions of the supreme council will be attended by an American Ameri-can representative, who will keep Washington informed of developments. The allies so far yielded to the protestations pro-testations of the Germans against the surrender of war criminals as to tell Berlin that the accused might he first tried before the German supreme court in Leipsic. But the allies reserve the right to reject the results of such trials if they believe there is any miscarriage mis-carriage of justice and in such cases to enforce the terms of the treaty and themselves try the offenders. It is stipulated, also, that the verdicts at previous trials of German war criminals crimi-nals must be annulled and the cases remanded for retrial. This would reopen re-open the Fryatt case, in which the verdict was that the murder of the British merchant ship captain was not a violation of international law. The conservatives in Germany declare this offer of the entente is quite unacceptable. unaccept-able. It is inconceivable to the Germans Ger-mans that they could put on trial their national heroes. The government of the Netherlands was put in a rather uncomfortable position po-sition by the reiteration of the demand for the extradition of the former kaiser, and though it prepared a reply repeating its refusal, there was much discussion of plans for the internment of the fugitive in some Dutch possession posses-sion far from Europe. The place most favored seemed to be Curacao, an island is-land in the Caribbean sea north of Venezuela. If Wilhelra intends to do any plotting in his retirement he would find a congenial atmosphere in Curacao, for it has long been the refuge ref-uge of would-be revolutionists from the Latin-American republics. It may be, however, that Holland will merely intern the ex-kalser in his new house at Doorn, keeping him under strict military guard. ' Germany is having so much trouble with revolutionists and labor agitators that the entente has extended the time limit for the reduction of her army to i00,000. Minister of Defense Noske has issued an order applying to Berlin and Brandenburg province threatening imprisonment or heavy fine for inciting incit-ing strikes that affect food production. In the Snar region, which is occupied by the French troops, fresh disturbances disturb-ances resulted in the proclamation of martial law. If soviet wireless dispatches from Moscow are to be believed and in this instance they probably are the revolutionists revo-lutionists are in full control of Vladivostok Vladi-vostok and most of eastern Siberia and are putting into effect a program which is in favor of union with soviet Russia. In southern Russia the volunteer volun-teer army Is reported to bo ravaged by typhus and falling hack in disorder to the Sea of Azov before the red troops. The bolsheviki are said to have proclaimed a soviet republic in. tin- part of the Ukraine they occupy and the formation of an "eternal brotherly union" with soviet Russia. Petrovsky is president of the new state. Sevastopol, the great port of the Crimea, is panic-stricken fearing the fate of Odessa. Poland while still maintaining the barrier against the bolsheviki is taking tak-ing steps toward a genera peace between be-tween the allies and the Moscow government, gov-ernment, and in this it probably has the support of the nations of western Europe. The negotiations will be taken up (' 'libenitely and the results submitted submit-ted to the peace conference in Paris. In Boumania, where royalists and radicals are struggling for control, the conditions are not promising. The radicals are in secret accord with the Russian bolshevists. who already are creeping across the border, and the recent re-cent mobilization of the Roumanian army has not checked the peril. The monarchists of Hungary, who are numerous, nu-merous, would like to help those of Roumania, but cannot do so for fear of the bolshevists in their own land and also because of the national hatred of the Roumanians engendered by their looting of Hungary. , Somewhat disheartened by the international inter-national complications, the treaty compromisers com-promisers in Washington attempted little last week and made less progress. prog-ress. But congress entered on another struggle that promised to be lively. This was brought on by the submission submis-sion to both houses of the conference report of the railway reorganization bill. It came up in the house Saturday Satur-day anil a long and heated debate ensued. en-sued. The measure was scheduled for consideration in the senate on Tuesday if tile house should not reject it. Opposition to the bill was led by the officials of the Federation of Labor and of the railway brotherhoods. They were against the whole measure In the first place because they favor government govern-ment ownership and operation; and specifically they object to the section providing for compulsory investigation of wage disputes and decisions by a labor la-bor tribunal, which, while not binding, bind-ing, are likely to have the support of public opinion and to that extent will deprive strikes of public sympathy. They also object to the financial provisions pro-visions which labor views as a validation valida-tion of water stock and guarantee ot abnormal profits. Representatives of railway investors said they were satisfied satis-fied with the financial provisions. Something of a jolt was administered adminis-tered to the war department by the report re-port of the subcommittee of the house which had been investigating aircraft production and expenditures; but the department has had so many such jolts that it probably has become callous. cal-lous. The report finds that there was "woeful extravagance, total incompetency, incompe-tency, utter failure and a wild riot of waste." Secretary Baker, Colonel Dlsque, who supervised spruce production, produc-tion, and Director Ryan are severely criticized. The subcommitte.e strongly recommends the creation of a separate air service. Virtually all of the facts of the collapse of aircraft production during the war have been known to the public for a long time. They do not make pleasant reading and the American people would like to forget them, since it seems impossible to punish pun-ish those to blame ; but they make fine campaign ammunition. Disregarding the many and loud protests, pro-tests, the United States shipping board tried to pull off its proposed auction sale of 30 former German passenger liners. Bids were received for single vessels and for groups, but all of them were so low that they were rejected. Then a temporary injunction against the sale was granted by Associate Justice Jus-tice Bailey of the district supreme court in Washington. He said the statutes did not show an intention on the part of congress to place in the president or the shipping board the power to sell the ships. The board lias asked congress for authority to offer the vessels for sale again. Vice Chairman Stevens is the only memher of the board opposed to the sale. He says their true valuation has never been worked out and that they are worth .$75,000,000, whereas less than half that amount was bid. Chairman Payne and the other members thought the ships should he sold to relieve the government of the expense of reconditioning recondi-tioning them and also because the future fu-ture market for ships is uncertain. Senator Pomerene of Ohio has withdrawn with-drawn from the race for the Democratic Democrat-ic nomination for president, alleging important business in the senate and the impossibility of his obtaining a solid Ohio delegation. lie never had much chance, anyhow. Mr. McAdoo has declared that he is not a candidate, candi-date, but admits that if nominated he would be proud to accept. In many Indiana cities petitions are in circulation circula-tion to have the name of Vice President Presi-dent Marshall placed on the Democratic Democrat-ic presidential preference ballot. This is done without the knowledge and consent of Mr. Marshall who said he would not seek the nomination. On the Republican side about the only important im-portant development was the decision of the Lowilen managers to keep out of the North Dakota primaries. This rs at the request of the Republicans of the state, who fear that a party contest con-test would help their enemies of the Nonpartisan League. Senator Johnson probably will follow Lowden's exam- i pie, and General Wood may do the I same. |