AN INTERVAL OF QUIET

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 36, 13 February 1919, Page 6

AN INTERVAL OF QUIET

The return of the Anglo-Saxon leaders to their own countries naturally causes a lull in Peace Conference proceedings, and this fact, as already noticed, is giving rise to some criticism, bat an interval of comparative quiet is not without certain advantages. There are some disputes, particularly those among the new undefined States, which will probably abate with time, and which will come nearer settlement by being temporarily divorced from the fever-heat of the Conference proceedings. While the Conference itself is in suspense, its commissions and com--mittees will be busy, and independent negotiations between disputants will proceed side by side, so.that many problems may be much nearer solution by the time that the Conference is again called on to pronounce upon them authUitatively and finally. Lapse of time majrsimplify the relations of . Poland ' with Prussia, Czecho-Slovakia, Ukrainia, and the Bolsheviks; may facilitate the delimitation of Czecho-Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary; and may help to settle the South Slav, Rumania, and Balkan difficulties. The process of contention and controversy will give all the claimant* a better idea of what can bi ckiwtd with waa,4affM

of success. "There »," it is cabled, " reason to hope that the Jugo-Slavs and the Italians will compose their differences." Granted this, the problem of the Adriatic practically disappears) except insofar as Greek claims are -concerned. If a satisfactory solution is also found in Poland, the reconstruction of Europe will be advanced a big step, and the task of the Conference will be materially lightened.