THE New Zealand Herald ADD DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1919. TERRITORIAL ADJESTMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17139, 19 April 1919, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald ADD DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1919. TERRITORIAL ADJESTMENTS.

The' Council of Four who are shaping the treaty of peace are their secret well, and for some weeks the press correspondents at Paris have been merely guessing the form the settlement will take. Now, however, the outline of the treaty begins to appear. There is as yet no authoritative statement, but in some aspects at least the conditions to be imposed upon Germany can be more clearly estimated than ever before. A cablegram published today suggests that the Allies are hot to demand their war costs, but are to be content with making Germany pay the individual losses caused in all allied countries, including pensions to those who have suffered by the war. If this is an accurate forecast the greater part of the bill the actual military costs—is being waived. Undoubtedly reparation for injury will be a first charge, but it will be a surprise and disappointment if the Congress has agreed to let German payments stop there. On that point we must await an official statement. Meantime it is possible to give some indication of tho territorial adjustments which are proposed. Some of theso have never been, in doubt, Austria-Hun-gary disappears as a political entity, and in her place emerge the new States of Poland and Bohemia, an enlarged Servia and an enlarged Roumania. The future of the Magyar portion of Hungary is still uncertain. If the Magyars elect to stand alone, the Allies can hardly deny them independence, but among racial enemies who have just reason for hating them, and menaced.from within by Bolshevism, their position will not be enviable. German Austria appears to be moving towards union with Germany, an arrangement which has its obvious dangers. To France those dangers are very near and very real, but the Congress has accepted the principle of nationalism and may demonstrate its consistency. taking the risk of permitting a political union between the Germans of Austria and the Germans of Germany, Among the other enemy countries Turkey is to share practically the same fate as Austria-Hungary. So complete is to be her extinction that it is stated no treaty will be signed with her. The future government of Turkey in Europe has not been disclosed. Greece is to enlarge her borders to include Thrace, to which she has a strong racial claim. In so doing, she will cut Bulgaria off from the jEgean, but there will be special provision for maintaining an outlet for Bulgarian trade, Kavala being mentioned as the port. It is improbable that Greek authority will be extended to include any part of Turkey in Europe, which will either form an international State under the League of Nations or be governed by a mandatory on behalf of that body. Turkey in Asia will undergo a severe contraction. Indeed, if the subject races are to be given the freedom they have been promised, Turkish rule must be confined to Anatolia, the land of the Ottoman's earliest occupation after he left the steppes of Central Asia. Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and the Hedjaz are not predominantly, in fact they are only slightly, Turkish, and are entitled either to self-government or to a kindlier guardian than the Turk. Only in the Anatolian province of Asia Minor have the Turks numerical superiority, and even here the population is mixed. However, this is the home land of the Turks, and since they must have some domain it is best Anatolia should be left to them. The suggested capital of the new Turkey, Broussa, was the seat of the Sultans before they removed their capital to the European lands they have vexed so long. It is a fitting asylum for what will remain of Ottoman magnificence after the Peace Congress has stripped the Turks of the conquests they have so cruelly abused and driven them empty-handed from a continent where they have never ceased to be strangers and intruders.

Germany suffers by comparison smaller territorial loss in Europe than any of her associates. Her punishment takes other forms, but she will nevertheless have to submit to the rectification of both eastern and western frontiers. To the new State of Poland she will surrender about 3,500,000 subjects and portion of the provinces of Silesia and Posen. Poland will also gain an outlet to the sea at Danzig, but to avoid the appearance of annexing a town which is almost wholly German the Council of Four have apparently decided to place it under the League of Nations. The recent announcement that East Prussia would be erected into an independent State has not been confirmed, but it is obvious that some such arrangement will have to be made if Poland is to have the valley of the Vistula but is to exclude the German population lying beyond it to the east. On the western frontier Germany will lose Alsace and Lorraine, to which she has never had a shadow of title except that of conquest, and the small but important valley of the Saar, which comprises only 200 or 300 square miles, but produces some 17,000,000 tons of coal a year. There appears to have been a direct clash of opinion as to the form in which Franco would control this coal. Mr. Wilson has apparently objected to direct annexation and has so far been successful that the Council has fallen back on that most convenient intermediary, the League of Nations. There can be no doubt, however, that it is intended France should have the use of the Sanr o<>nl, by way of compensation for the ruin Germany deliberately wrought in the French coalfields. Finally, provision is reported to have been rride for the " demilitarisation " of the left

bank of,the Rhine and for the neutralisation of the right bank to a depth of 25 miles. If this is a correct interpretation of the Allies' intentions it means that no German fortifications and no German troops will be permitted within 25 miles of the Rhine, a guarantee which should satisfy France that the Allies are determined she shall not again be left to stand alone in face of a German invasion bursting ovor her borders almost before a state of war is known to exist.