ITALIANS QUIT PARIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17144, 25 April 1919, Page 5

ITALIANS QUIT PARIS

ADRIATIC ISSUES. DELEGATION WITHDRAWS. OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

ETCHING A DEADLOCK. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK. April 54. Ad official Italian announcement states that as the result of Mr. Wil-' 6ou's statement on the Adriatic issue the Italian delegation has de-1 tided to quit Paris immediately. j It is understood that Britain and ! France informed Italy that if she in- ' fisted on the Pact of London they would insist on the clause which gave Fiume to the Croatians. Anstralian sad N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 24. The Paris correspondent of the United Press states that Sipor Orlando has officially informed M. (lemenceau that the Italian delegation will leavo Paris this af^-noon.

MR. WILSON'S CONTENTION. OLD AGREEMENT VOID. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 6.40 p.m.) PARIS, April 23. Mr. Wilson maintains that every condition of the Adriatic settlement 1 has changed since Italy entered the war. Therefore the former agreement must not stand. New States have been created, of which Fiume is the natural outlet to the sea. The Austrian naval menace has ceased to exist, therefore Italy's claims regarding strategic necessity are invalid. SERIOUS CRISIS CAUSED. ITALY REFUSES TO YIELD. 'A. and N.Z. PARIS, April 23. A serious crisis has arisen in the Peace Conference over the Adriatic question. The Italians adhere with , the utmost determination to their demands for a frontier line which will give them complete security, and their delegates as well as the Rome newspapers declare thai, despite the crisis the conquered territory will remain Italian whatever happens.

On the othet hand, Mr. Wilson is adamant in his refusal to permit the annexation of any territory beyond the old frontier. The utmost he is prepared to offer Italy is the annexation of some of the small islands of the Adriatic and the neutralisation of Zara, the port and capital of Dalmatia. He has also made a statement that it is impossible for Frame to become part of Italy. Thus a complete deadlock exists.

Mr. Lloyd George is strenuouslyendeavouring to prevent the Italians abandoning the conference. It is asserted that the Italian delegates will not attend the meeting with the German peace delegates at Versailles next Monday.

Signor Orlando is preparing to issue a counterblast to Mr. Wilson's statements regarding Italy's demands.

Two days ago the Italians placed a proposition before the council which was in the nature of bargaining over Fiurne and the Dalmatian Hinterland, but Mr. Wilson opposed the principle of bargaining.

The probability of Finme becoming a bone of contention at, the Peace Conference was not unforeseen. A correspondent of the Timeß, discussing the ultimate fate of the city some time ago, wrote: The question of Fiume will seriously engage the attention of the Peace Conference. _ It is d, complex problem in which Croatian, Magyar, and Italian interests axe directly involved, while, indirectly, the interests of the whole of the new Jugoslav State, as well as those of Bohemia and Roumania, enter into it. Although, in these days, "historic rights" are apt to be dismissed in favour of claims supported by general jjrinciples or by economic and political necessities, actual and prospective, the clairnf of history should be considered if only as a means of adjusting the focus of political microscopes. The city of Fiume itself, us distinct from its suburbs, (fintains. according to the latest available figures, some 24.000 Italians, 15,000 Croats r.r Southern Slavs, 6000 Magyars, and 2000 inhabitants of various nationalities. The industrial suburb of Sushak, which is separated from Fiume by a narrow f'.ream, contains some 13,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 12,000 are Southern Slav or, to be precise, Croats and Slovenes. Over the bridge across the stream hundreds of workmen pass to their daily toil. The town has had a chequered history. Originally a fishing village, and afterwards a small centre of coastwise trade, it became important upon the construction I r,f the 13ufla Pestb-Aeram-Fiume railway. For lon? it was a Hapsburg possession. Declared a free port in 1717, it was afterwards handed over to the kingdom of j Croatia. In 1779 a new and troubled era . began. Fiume was then placed Tinder the newly-created Hungarian Aulic Council, a Magyar nobleman, Count Joseph Maiiath, being appointed first Governor. In 1807, ] Law IV. of the Hungarian Parliament in-: corporate Fiume in Hungary, but two years later, under the Napoleonic regime,, it became part of Illyria. In 1822 it was i once mure restored to Hungary, but during the Croatian national movement of I 13J8 it was reunited to Croatia. Iti the, vear 1861, when the Emperor Francis Joseph was seeking to reform his realms • nod to secure Magyar support for a cen-1 tial Austro-Hungarian Parliament, Fiume, wa.* rendered autonomous under the autliorilv iif Buria Pesth. After the defeat of J-idi-wa, Francis Joseph once more sought an agreement with the Magyars, who then roundly declined all discussion of the , status "of Fiume. The Austro-Hnngarian Settlement of Compromise of 1867, which c:+ated the Dual system, left the Magyars practically a free hand in their dealings with Croatia. By exercising those arts of administrative pressure in which they excel they secured a packed Mag:.ii'..|ihil Croatian Diet which passed—with the exception of one clause—the Hungaro- ' r-.atian Settlement, or Nagoda, of 1868. Disagreement continued, however, Magyar ai:>l CV.at disputing the title of the town. The pit'Miit position seems to be that though Fiume is net assigned to Italy by the s-cret Treaty of London (April, 1915), it is n ow claimed as Italian by Italian political writers, because it, without Suslak. is inhabited by a majority of Italianipe.king inhabtants. The Croats and, on t!.« i behalf, the new Serb-CroatSlovene Cii .eminent claim Fiume as a Southern Slav port on the ground that it is historicallv and juridically Croatian; that, with the irreparable suburb of Sushak, it is inhabited by a majority of Southern Slavs; and that it is the only outlet at present available for Servian and Southern Slav traffic towards the sea.