REDRAWING THE MAP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17634, 26 May 1919, Page 8

REDRAWING THE MAP

WAR'S HAVOC. REARRANGING NATIONAL BOUNDARIES. Tho map of the world will have to be redrawn alter the Peace Conference. Most of the changes will be made in lilurope, but immense tracts of territory in Asia and Africa, not to mention large islands in the South Pacific, are to pass under rule that was not theirs until Germany cast the gauntlet | before the world, and therefore challenged civilisation to rearrange national boundaries everywhere on fairer and faster principles. It is an extraordinarily difficult matter, however, this of fixing tho now frontiers. There has been a great deal of declamation by the world's statesmen, with regard to tho principle of self-determination; much talk of our intention to airango Europe " as far as possible, with regard to the principle of nationality and in accordance with tho wishes of the people who dwell in the various disputed areas." In other words, the idea is for the people of one race to livo in the borders of their own country instead of being held, under the old conditions, under a yoke to which they had been obliged to submit by force majeure. Thus, large portions of tho provinces of Transylvania and Bessarabia, hitherto Austrian and Russian, are claimed by Rumania because their populations are Rumanian in stock; Italy, along tho same lines, is supposod to have a ritrht to various portions of Austria and other countries; Serbia is entitled to big slices of territory where the populations are Serbs; the various peoples formerly con , stituting the Austro-Hungarian Empire claim tliei." independence; Poland does the same. And so on. * VERY DIFFICULT WORK.

But anybody who has studied tne map of Europe according to ethnographical distribution will know thai the task of "drawing the line" is extraordinarily difficult. _ Rumanians, Serbs, Bulbars, Greeks, Italians, Poles, Czcehs, Albanians.. Slovenes, Germans, Croats, the whole medley "of races m Austro-Hungary and the Balkans, are so mingled in many places that tho adjustment of boundaries along racial lines is simply impossible. Moreover, such settlement, in numerous instances; even if it could be managed, would be unjust to other nations. Small States, by accidcnt of situation, might be given the power of cutting off bigger and much more important nations from tne sea, or from proper and deserved commercial development and so forth. Thus, it can easily be seen, the _ work of fixing the boundaries of the nations, the new nations and the oid ones, will be the work of many years. CARELESSNESS CAUSES TROUBLE. The main principle, /then, is to bring into on© fold, under one Government, those people who wish to form a single nation ,and in doing so to endeavour to fix boundaries which will not only be convenient fori the present, but have in them the ' elements of stability for the future. Too many wars have arisen through carelessness or lack of_ fore sight or .inattention to racial claims in the past for the world to risk similar trouble in tho future, and we may be suijs that the very greatest effort will be made, now that the world has had its most pointed object lesson ,in the horrors of war, to have frontiers fixed fairly. Some examples of how more or less careless methods of frontier delimitation have led to trouble may be found interesting. In the main they have been connected with the geographical side of the question, as the racial considerations now so dominant have not hitherto been given due regard. In the i>ast some frontiers have been drawn in straight lines. The most striking example is that between the United States and Canada, one which has on the whole been remarkably satisfactory, although it has lively associations, especially in regard to the demarcation at the Lake Champlin end of B the line, and again at the Eastern end, where the line of the Columbia River was presumed by Britain to mark the boundary, giving the Stat© of Washington to Canada. The matter wa6 referred to arbitration, and in this neither side got all it contended for. OTHER "INCIDENTS." Delimitations by map in regard to Africa have given rise to "incidents" when it came to the question of demarcation as in the case of Britain and Belgium in Central Africa.. The line, airily agreed upon by diplomats, proved quite impracticable for the boundary-makers, who, as they proceeded with their work, discovered geographic and other factors upsetting the intentions of the treaty makers. Another arrangement' in which there had to be give and take on both sides, had to be made. And in the delimination of the German South-West Africa boundary no heed could be taken of geographical features, because the land was not explored, and had not tho Great War interfered and, ' apparently, settled the question, there would probably have been trouble over this particular specimen of the art of arranging boundaries by drawing a straight line in ignorance of geographical conditions.

History abounds in such incidents. When Russia and Norway were drawing the line west of Finland the Russians arranged to take the territory along the Tana and Tornea watershed, thinking, it would appear, that this would take them right across to the Atlantic. But it didn't. They had taken too much for granted; they were ignorant of the local geography. A MOVING • BOUNDARY.

That was the case, by the way, when tho Governments of Russia, and Britain agreed on a delimitation of their respective spheres of interest north of India, and fixed tho line of the Oxus. They little knew the habits of that river, which is in on© channel to-day and in another later on. A boundary which "dunno where it are," So to put it, is' of no use, and it is to be hoped that in the new demarcation of boundaries in Asia —say, Armenia and Mesopotamia—tho powers that be will pay due heed to geographical features as well as ethnic considerations, and refrain from giving the commissioners tasks impossible of completion, and from leaving loopholes for future controversy. They may take their lesson the incidents mentioned, and they may bear in mind the folly of making tho line of the hills" a boundary, unless they know exactly what thai means. When that definition was used to . define the boundary between Chili and her next neighbour a few years ago it was found in due course that if the line was taken from mountain top to mountain top it formed a sort of crazy quilt pattern, and gave to on© nation territory not "within the meaning of the

In India 121 guns is the King's naval salute.

viscount Dangan, who succeeds the somewhat notorious Lord Cowley, was born ls *' Tnas '9 ay ' He entered the ■Filth Lanoers, but resigned, and was later a scene painter at the Quinlan Operatic Studio at Hendon m 1911. He'was then earning £2 a week. He said he was put into the army against his will, and he resigned to take up a stage life. Between the army and the scene painters he staff© managed a music hall troupe. In 1914 he married Miss May Picard, an American actress, at New York, wlio was engaged with "The Girl on the Film Company" Atter a three weeks' honeymoon, Lord mngan and his bride arranged a music hail tour of the United States. Both appeared m a vaudeville sketch, entitled -"High Life, the viscountess's three sisters also taking part.' In 1916 he was before the Official Receiver for examination, and then stated that his earnings as an actor averaged about £7 a week. His more rocent experiences in the theatrical world consist of playing toe part of a "nut" in "You Never Know x Know at the Criterion Thearte for the' last six months under the name of Arthur Wellesley. The new earl is a striking figure of a man, standing 6ft 3m. He has a son and heir, born in May, 1915. The late Lord Cowley served in South Africa with the Imperial Yeomanry in 1900. He owned about 4000 acres, and was patron of seven livings. His grandfather. the first earl nephew of the Duke of Wellington, was British Minister Plenipotentiary to the Germanic Confederation; 1851-5?,, and Ambassador Extraordinary to France, 18521867. He was created an earl of the United Kingdom in 1857.

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