was risky to
proclaim attachments to the kingdom.[210] The inhabitants had invoked
Mr. Wilson's own words: "National aspirations must be respected....
Self-determination is not a mere phrase." "Peoples and provinces are not
to be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were
mere chattels and pawns in a game. Every territorial settlement involved
in this war must be made in the interest and for the benefit of the
populations concerned, and not as a part of any adjustment for
compromise of claims among rival states." And in his address at Mount
Vernon the President had advocated a doctrine which is peculiarly
applicable to Fiume--_i.e._:

"The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sovereignty,
of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, upon the basis of
the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately
concerned, and not upon the basis of material interest or advantage of
any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement, for
the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery."[211] These maxims
laid down by Mr. Wilson implicitly allot Fiume to Italy.

Finally as to the objection that Italy's claims would entail the
incorporation of a number of Slavs, the answer was that the percentage
was negligible as compared with the number of foreign elements annexed
by other states. The Poles, it was estimated, would have some 30 per
cent. of aliens, the Czechs not less, Rumania 17 per cent., Jugoslavia
11 per cent., France 4 per cent., and Italy only 3 per cent.

In February the Jugoslavs made a strategic move, which many admired as
clever, and others blamed as unwise. They proposed that all differences
between their country and Italy should be submitted to Mr. Wilson's
arbitration. Considering that the President's mind was made up on the
subject from the beginning, and that he had decided against Italy, it
was natural that the delegation in whose favor his decision was known to
incline should be eager to get it accepted by their rivals. As neither
side was ignorant of what the result of the arbitration would be, only
one of the two could be expected to close with the offer, and the most
it could hope by doing this was to embarrass the other. The Italian
answer was ingenious. Their dispute, they said, was not with Serbia, who
alone was represented at the Conference; it concerned Croatia, who had
no official standing there, and whose frontiers were not