Russia has made in Asiatic Turkey, and the consequences which it is apprehended will flow therefrom, it must be fully understood that, if the cause of the danger should cease, the precautionary agreement will cease at the same time. If the Government of Russia should at any time surrender to the Porte the territory it has acquired in Asia by the recent war, the stipulations in the proposed agreements will cease to operate, and the island will be immediately evacuated.

I request, therefore, your Excelleney to propose to the Porte to agree to a Convention to the following effect, and I have to convey to you full authority to conclude the same on behalf of the Queen and of Her Majesty's Government: "If Batoum, Ardahan, Kars or any of them shall be retained by Russia, and if any attempt shall be made at any future time by Russia to take possession of any further portion of the Asiatic territories of the Sultan, as fixed by the definite Treaty of Peace, England engages to join the Sultan in defending them by force of arms. In return, the Sultan promises to England to introduce necessary reforms (to be agreed upon later between the two Powers) into the government of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in these territories; and, in order to enable England to make necessary provision for executing her engagement, the Sultan further consents to assign the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England."

There is still another point that escaped the eyes of many readers and transcribers. There is no doubt but what the three districts were given up by Russia, but they were not ceded to Turkey, as the inaccurate version had it. The people of these districts were to be allowed to set up whatever government they wished for themselves, with, however, the friendly coöperation and advice of the neighboring states, in particular, Turkey. This was, however, but a veiled cession to the last named Power, as the "plebiscite" which was taken there in July abundantly proved. Although the population was not far from evenly divided between Mohammedan and Christian, something over ninety-seven per cent. voted in favor of annexation to Turkey on what was distinctly a very small vote."

The Erivan side of the question has also considerable interest. Erivan was not given up by Russia for annexation to Turkey, because it would have estranged the supposedly friendly, actually wavering, Government of Persia, from which country Erivan was taken by Russia in 1829. The whole atmosphere of this former government of

:

• Population, 1897 (Russian Census), Christian 200,000, Mohammedan 250,000; Vote, 1918 (under Turkish auspices) for inclusion in Turkey, 85,124against, 1,924. This includes Alexandropol city as well as Kars and Batum. The figures can only be approximate for 1897.

the Russian Caucasus is Persian-Tartar where it is not Armenian. There is little Turkish about it, in its history or in its people, and its cession to Turkey would have been a distinctly different thing from its return to Persia, with which its history and civilization are most closely connected.

SOME TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS BEFORE THE PEACE CONFERENCE

The Banat of Temesvar

The Banat is a rich, thickly populated province of southern Hungary, claimed by both Serbia and Roumania as an essential part of their reconstructed national territory. Enclosed by the Transylvanian Carpathians on the east and by three rivers flowing into each other on the remaining boundaries, the Maros on the north, the Tisza on the west, and the Danube on the south, it contains a highly mixed population of about a million and a half people.

The Serbs claim that they were the original settlers, and have all during history played a leading part there, as shown by the constitution of a Serbian duchy under the Austro-Hungarian rulers. The Roumanians, on the other hand, state that the Banat, with Transylvania, was the original cradle of their race to which other nationalities came as immigrants.

Ethnologically, the Roumanians are credited with thirty-seven per cent. of the population, the Germans with twenty-five per cent., the Serbs with eighteen per cent. and the Magyars with fifteen per cent. The Banat, however, is divided into three distinct counties where the lines are drawn differently. The eastern mountainous country of Krasso is predominantly Roumanian, with a Roumanian population of 336,082, or seventy-two per cent.; the Germans with 55,883, or twelve per cent.; the Magyars with 33,787, or seven per cent., and the Serbs with 14,993, or three per cent. The central plains country of Temes contains 160,585 Roumanians, or forty per cent.; 120,683 Germans, or thirty per cent; 57,985 Serbs, or fourteen per cent.; 47,518 Magyars, or twelve per cent. The eastern grain province of Torontal contains 195,104 Serbs, or thirty-three per cent.; 158,312 Germans, or twenty-seven per cent.; 125,041 Magyars, or twenty-one per cent., and 86,168 Roumanians, or fifteen per cent.

Economically, the Serbs claim at least the western, grain-raising half of the Banat as essential, because Jugo-Slavia as a whole has

not sufficient cereals, while Roumania is one of the granaries of Europe. They state also that the whole trade of that section flows out along the lines of the rivers toward Belgrade and the Danube and that the Banat, at least the western part, is naturally part of the Serbian economic system. Roumania claims that the Banat is an indivisible whole economically, geographically, and administratively, and that any ethnic division is impracticable. They claim that their mountain section needs the plains section for food supplies and the rivers to secure an outlet for the trade, especially their lumber.

The Serbs, moreover, desire the Banat, or at least the section nearest them, for strategic reasons to cover the capital at Belgrade and the valley of the Morava, their principal artery of communication. They say it is essential to prevent further invasions of large forces from Hungary, as happened in the attacks on Belgrade during the recent war.

The Duchy of Teschen

This province, in dispute between Poland and Czecho-Slovakia, is a small but valuable part of the Crownland of Austrian Silesia, located between Prussian Silesia on the north, Galicia on the east, Hungary and the Carpathians on the south, and Moravia on the west. It contains 857 square miles and its population, according to the last Austrian census in 1910, was 434,821. It contains deposits of hard, black, coke-producing coal, essential to the manufacturing centers of Bohemia and the industrialized sections of Austria. Teschen has also considerable value as a railroad center. The main line between the Czechs in Bohemia and the Slovaks in Hungary runs through the frontier city of Oderberg to Kassa, connecting at the former with the main line to Berlin and Budapest. According to the Austrian censuses, the population is given as fifty-four per cent. Poles, twenty-seven per cent. Czechs and seventeen per cent. Germans.

When the Austrian Government collapsed in October, 1918, the people of Teschen organized to preserve law and order. A Czecho National Council was set up over the Czech district and a Polish National Council over the Polish district. On November 5th the two Councils came to an agreement to continue this administration temporarily, the railroad to be under the Poles, the mines to have a joint administration, and nothing to be done by either side to prejudice

the final disposition of the territory or to effect its permanent incorporation with the administration of the Polish or Czecho-Slovak States.

Disputes over the execution of the agreement led to armed conflicts between the Czechs and the Poles. On January 29th the claims of both parties were heard before the Conference of the Great Powers at Paris. It is understood that the Czechs claim all of Teschen, for the reasons that since the Polish princes there accepted the suzerainty of the Kings of Bohemia in the fourteenth century, the district has been part of the lands of the Bohemian Crown; that the coal and coke of the region are essential to the industries of Czecho-Slovakia and are not so vitally essential to Poland; that the railroad through Oderberg forms the only reliable link between the two halves of the Czecho-Slovak State. The Poles propose a division along linguistic lines, such as existed when Austrian administration ceased. Because of their majority in population, such a division would give the Poles control of the railroad and most of the mines.

On February 3d a modus vivendi was signed by the representatives of Poland and Czecho-Slovakia and the delegates of the Great Powers. It reads as follows:

The representatives of the Great Powers, having been informed of the conflict which has arisen between the Czechs and Poles in the Principality of Teschen, in consequence of which the mining district of Ostrawa-Karwin and the railway from Oderberg to Teschen and Jablungkau has been occupied by the Czechs, have declared as follows:

In the first instance they think it necessary to remind the nationalities who have engaged to submit the territorial questions which concern them to the Peace Conference, that they are, pending its decision, to refrain from taking as a pawn or from occupying the territories to which they lay claim.

The representatives take note of the engagement by which the Czech Delegates have declared that they were definitively stopping their troops on the line of the railway which runs from Oderberg to Teschen-Jablungkau.

Pending the decisions of the Peace Conference as to the definitive assignment of the territories, that part of the railway line to the north of Teschen and the mining regions will remain in the occupation of Czech troops while the southern section of the line starting from and including the town of Teschen down to Jablungkau will be entrusted to the military supervision of the Poles. The undersigned consider it indispensable that a Commission of Control should be immediately sent to the spot to avoid any conflict between the Czechs and Poles in the region of Teschen. This Commission, apart from the measures that it will have to prescribe, will proceed to an inquiry on the basis of which the Peace Conference may form its decision in fixing definitively the respective

frontiers of the Czechs and Poles in the contested zone. The seat of this Commission will be situated in the town of Teschen.

In order to seal the entente between two friendly nations which should follow a policy in full accord with that of the Allied and Associated Powers, the representatives of the Great Powers register the promise of the Czech representatives that their country will put at the disposition of the Poles all its available resources in war material and will grant to them every facility for the transit of arms and ammunition.

The exploitation of the mines of the Karwin-Ostrawa district will be carried out in such a way as to avoid all infraction of private property while reserving any police measures which the situation may require. The Commission of Control will be empowered to supervise this and, if necessary, to secure to the Poles that part of the output which may be equitably claimed by them to meet their wants.

It is understood that the local administration will continue to function in accordance with the conditions of the pact of the 5th November, 1918, and that the rights of minorities will be strictly respected.

Pending the decision of the Peace Congress, political elections and military conscription will be suspended in the Principality of Teschen.

No measure implying annexation of all or of a part of the said Principality either to the territory of Poland or of Czecho-Slovakia taken by interested parties shall have binding force.

The Delegates of the Czech Nation engage to release immediately with their arms and baggage the Polish prisoners taken during the recent conflict.

(Signed) WOODROW WILSON

D. LLOYD GEORGE

V. E. ORLANDO

G. CLEMENCEAU

ROMAN DMOWSKI
E. BENES

Territorial Claims of Greece

Four accessions of territory are requested by Greece of the Peace Conference.

To the north she asks for northern Epirus, which is a narrow strip of land running inland from the Adriatic on the present northern boundary of Greece and in the southern part of Albania. Greece claims the territory to be predominantly Greek, her figures showing 120,000 Greeks as against 80,000 Albanians, so intermingled that the only solution is to give sole jurisdiction to the predominating interest. The strip is also claimed by Greece on the ground that it will offer a good strategic frontier. The Albanians dispute the Greek claims, maintaining that the territory, especially the city of Goritza, is the center of their intellectual movement, and that to take it from