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THE WELSH OUTLOOK The Editor does not necessarily identify himself with the opinions of contributors to "The Welsh Outlook." Ediiorial responsibility is limited to the views expressed in the Notes of the Month," and in the unsigned article immediately following. NOTES OF THE MONTH The Peace At the time of writing, the situation at Conference the Peace Conference is strained in the extreme. We hope that, before this issue appears, a satisfactory solution may have been found. The Italians share with other nations the ordinary im- pulses of humanity, and we have no wish to make a harsh judgment of their case. As yet, there is not, amongst the European peoples, any whose past is so free from sin as to justify its casting stones. The whole question of the Eastern Adriatic is complicated by factors easy, but dangerous, to ignore. Under the Pact of London, Italy claims the further shore of the Adriatic Sea. She now presents also a claim to the port of Fiume on the ground that there would be no safety on that further shore, if the Jugo-Slavs, possessing Fiume and the inland country, broke the line of approach. Fiume has a history which shews all the troubled pro- cesses through which the world has gone. The Greeks, the Romans, and the emissaries of Charlemagne ruled it in turn. In the heyday of its temporal power, the Roman Church achieved possession. Venice and Austria held it later. In 1809, Napoleon conquered it for the French, and, in its restoration to Austria, Great Britain played a leading part. With the ending of the War and the dawn of a new ideal of world-government in the League of Nririons, we had begun to hope that those old, harsh proct »es were done with, but, even in the Peace Conference that began by shaping the League, they crash upon us once again. The Pact of London, in which France and Great Britain definitely promise the Eastern Adriatic to Italy as a re- ward for entering the War, comes into conflict with the new spirit for which President Wilson and his followers stand. Once again we see that the old methods of secret MAY, 1919. diplomacy have in them the elements of discord and that its chickens come home to roost when we neither expect nor want them. There are millions who desire for men to come a world freed from the ancient menace, and, after these years of agony, yearn to endow them with those humane and righteous things that, so far, have been a dream. To-day, they must be watching the hours in great suspense. More than Fiume and the Eastern Adriatic is here involved. We stand in poise and must go on-or go back. The League The League of Nations is everybody's of Nations business, and it as is much a matter for Wales as for any nation. If our traditions mean anything, and our present sense of independence and progress, we should spare no effort to make the principle of the League of Nations the basis of our thought and our national policy. The principle of self-determination for which we are fighting has every- thing to gain from the establishment of a League, and it is to our interests to be eager supporters of the movement. Above all, it is our duty. Let us be eager for a great cause. The League of Nations Union is directing a campaign in Wales under the guidance of Major W. P. Wheldon, and it is to be hoped that leaders of opinion in every county will supplement his efforts. The Welsh churches and chapels have not yet proved themselves true to their war-time prayers. The League of Nations is a practical answer to their petitions, and if the churches wish to hold the youth who have been tried by the war they had better learn the great lesson of the war at once, and set themselves to the very clear task of establishing in fact that which hitherto they have thought of only in prayer.