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 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 them would fatally cripple the new state. They further state that a substantial portion of the so-called Greek population uses Albanian as its mother tongue and is consequently of Albanian inclinations. To the east Greece claims the part of Thrace now in southern Bulgaria and running through to the Black Sea, including Constantinople. The claims are put forward on racial, religious and historical grounds. Assuming that the Turks will be driven from Constantinople and deferring her claim to an international régime of the city, the Greeks assert preponderant rights in Constantinople, because it was the capital of the Greek Empire before the Turkish conquest, and today contains 364,459 Greeks and 449,114 Turks out of a total population of 1,173,673, besides being the seat of the Greek Ecumenical Patriarch. The boundary suggested by Greece for her proposed acquisition in southern Bulgaria would run from Joula, on the present Greco-Bulgarian northeastern frontier, along the Arda to the Maritza, and along the Turko-Bulgarian boundary of 1913 northeast of Kirk-Kilissia to Cape Iniada. The territory includes the harbors of Saloniki, Kavalla and Dedeagatch and a front on the Black Sea. It is claimed by Greece on the principle of nationality, the Greek figures showing 69,000 Bulgarians, 348,000 Greeks and 442,000 Turks. It is expected that Bulgaria will contest this attempt of Greece to cut her off from all outlet to the Ægean. In Asia Minor Greece would limit the Turk to the interior, where he is in numerical preponderance; create a separate Armenia and allot to Greece most of the vilayet of Aidin, comprising the seaboard of Asia Minor and containing the harbor of Smyrna. The Greeks claim that for 3,000 years their race has held the predominant position along the Asia Minor seaboard, where today they claim a majority of the population, namely, 1,188,359 Greeks against 1,048,359 Mohammedans. They further claim this section under the offer of the Entente made in January, 1915, as the consideration for the entry of Greece into the war. Turkey is expected to contest the Greek claim to the seaboard of Asia Minor, especially if she is deprived of Constantinople and Armenia. Unofficially the Turks already dispute the Greek population figures, not so much as to totals. as to their compactness of location, and state that all the rivers, trade routes and economic life of the Turkish territory of Asia Minor flows straight westward down to the Ægean, and that to deprive this territory of the seaboard would be practically to strangle it. Greece also claims the islands off the coast of Asia Minor, the Dodecanesus and Rhodes, Castellorizo, Imbros and Tenedos, on the ground that they have been Greek for thousands of years, that the present population is eighty per cent. Greek and the culture entirely Greek. The Dodecanesus were allotted to Italy by the so-called Pact of London of April 26, 1915, but Greece hopes that Italy will withdraw from them. The territorial interests of Greece were presented to the representatives of the Great Powers on February 4th and referred to an expert committee composed of two representatives of the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy. The committee was authorized to consult the representatives of the peoples concerned. The Hedjaz The Hedjaz is a rich country fronting on the Red Sea, with a population of 300,000, containing the cities of Mecca and Medina, and claims to have been independent for eight centuries. The Cherif of Mecca, because of his aid to the Entente Allies during the war, was recognized in 1916 as King of the Hedjaz and is represented at the Peace Conference by two delegates. He desires not only the formal recognition of the independence of his own country, but advocates the eventual union into one Pan-Arab Federation of from ten to twelve million Arab-speaking people, occupying a territory one-third in size that of the United States. These populations are included in the countries of Asir and Yemen, south of the Hedjaz on the Red Sea and ruled by local Arab chieftains, and the great Arabian desert lying to the east of the Hedjaz, inhabited by many nomad tribes. No specific requests for changing the status of these countries at present is made by the King of the Hedjaz, but he suggests that the dispositions of the Peace Conference should regard these districts as ultimately a part of a Pan-Arab State. The King of the Hedjaz further requests that separate autonomous governments be established in Syria and Mesopotamia, with a view to their becoming a part of the Pan-Arab union. CHRONICLE OF INTERNATIONAL EVENTS WITH REFERENCES Abbreviations: Ann. sc. pol., Annales des sciences politiques, Paris; Arch. dipl., Archives Diplomatiques, Paris; B., boletin, bulletin, bolletino; P. A. U., bulletin of the Pan-American Union, Washington; Cd., Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers; Clunet, J. de Dr. Int. Privé, Paris; Current History-Current History-A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times; Doc. dipl., France, Documents diplomatiques; B. Rel. Ext., Boletin de Relaciones Exteriores; Dr., droit, diritto, derecho; D. O., Diario Oficial; For. rel., Foreign Relations of the United States; Ga., gazette, gaceta, gazzetta; Int., international, internacional, internazionale; J., journal; J. O., Journal Officiel, Paris; L., Law; M., Magazine; Mém. dipl., Mémorial diplomatique, Paris; Monit., Belgium, Moniteur belge; Martens, Nouveau recueil général de traités, Leipzig; Official Bulletin, Official Bulletin of the United States; Q., Quarterly; Q. dip., Questions diplomatiques et coloniales; R., review, revista, revue, rivista; Reichs G., Reichs-Gesetzblatt, Berlin; Staats, Staatsblad, Netherlands; State Papers, British and Foreign State Papers, London; Stat. at L., United States Statutes at Large; Times, The Times (London). August, 1916. 4 RUMANIA-FRANCE, GREAT BRITAIN, ITALY, RUSSIA. Treaties signed under which Rumania entered the war. Summaries: London Times, Feb. 4, 1919; Temps, Feb. 3, 1919; Washington Post, February 4, 1919. April, 1918. 24 BRAZIL. Executive decree issued putting into force the resolutions of Fourth International Conference of American States, 1910, relative to steamship service, commerce customs and statistics, commercial statistics, reorganization of Union of American Republics and interchange of professors and students. P. A. U., 47: 855. September, 1918. 20 PERU URUGUAY. Convention signed relative to diplomas and certificates issued by educational authorities. Summary: P. A. U., 47:854. |