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THE LIVING AGE

NUMBER 4017

JULY 2, 1921

A WEEK OF THE WORLD

SOME, ITALIAN FOREIGN PROBLEMS

La Nación, of Buenos Aires, publishes an interview given to its Rome correspondent by Count Sforza, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Italy has recently raised its legation in Brazil to the rank of an embassy, in recognition of that country's participation in the European war; while it is still represented in Chile and the Argentine by Ministers. The latter countries appear to be sensitive over this discrimination. Count Sforza expressed the opinion that Italy's relations with Latin America would become relatively more important, as compared with its relations with other countries, in consequence of the war. The Italian government is particularly interested just at present in the emigration problem. 'However, it is my opinion that in the near future the importance of this problem from our point of view will diminish. Italy is developing along the same lines as Belgium, where the progress of agriculture and industry have gone hand in hand. Improvements in farming methods will eventually enable Italy to support all of its children.' However, for a time the country will be forced to depend on emigration to maintain its economic equilibrium. The principal legal problem involved is that of citizenship. After referring to Germany's attempt

before the war to demand double citizenship for its expatriated subjects, Count Sforza expressed disapproval of such a policy. He believes that technically the emigrant should become a citizen of the land he makes his permanent home; but that he should reretain a 'spiritual' citizenship in his mother country.

Referring to the objections which the Brazilian government is making to the special 'Emigration Treaty' proposed by Italy, on the ground that it tends to establish capitulations guaranteeing to Italians residing in the Republic special privileges and protection analogous to those which Europeans formerly enjoyed in Turkey, Egypt, and certain ports of the Orient, the Minister expressed the hope and expectation that a compromise could be reached, which would guarantee sufficiently the rights of Italian laborers in Brazil without prejudice to the sovereignty and dignity of the latter country.

Not entirely consistent with the statement of the Foreign Minister, that Italy's commercial future lies largely in South America, is his declaration on another occasion, that 'Italy is turning toward the East in search of new fountains of prosperity and new economic and moral ties. Its future is in the Levant, on the Black Sea, and in closer relations with the Islam world,'

Copyright 1921, by The Living Age Co.

These words, according to the Journal de Genève, throw a suggestive light upon the patient efforts of Italian diplomacy to accomplish the penetration of the Balkans. The latter have not been altogether successful. According to late reports the Yugoslavs and Italians have fallen out over the terms of the commercial pact, which was to complete the Treaty of Rapallo. Serbian newspapers assert that Italy demanded a concession for a railroad from the Adriatic to the Danube, with a branch line to Zara, and complete freedom of navigation, commerce, and fishing on the eastern side of the Adriatic. Serbia resented these demands as being more appropriate when addressed to a country like Morocco than to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Albania is another sore point in the Balkan situation. That country insists on a restoration of its ancient boundaries, while both Serbia and Greece are claiming and occupying territories at its expense. Furthermore, Serbia and Greece complain that Bulgarian bands are raiding their territories with the encouragement and support of their fellow nationals at home, if not of their government. In view of the generally unsettled situation in the Far East, the Journal de Genève opines that some time must elapse before conditions are favorable for marked economic expansion of Italy in that direction.

ECHOES OF THE BOLIVAR SPEECH

PRESIDENT HARDING'S speech at the unveiling of the Bolivar statue at New York does not exactly please the people of the Argentine, who, while commending the great services of the Libertador to Spanish-American independence, feel that it was unjust to certain heroes of that movement in the southern end of the continent to attribute to him so

large a measure of credit as did the President in his address. On the whole, however, the policy of the Administration toward the Spanish-American countries is commended. The appointment of Secretary Hughes is generally approved by our Latin neighbors. The attitude of our government toward the conflict between Panama and Costa Rica, and its approval of the Treaty with Colombia, have been equally gratifying to them. Upon the whole, of course, the Bolivar speech is regarded as something more than a friendly gesture, in spite of the slight dissatisfaction which the exclusive emphasis upon his services to South American independence, occasioned.

THE NEW GERMAN PREMIER

CABINETS are so unstable in Europe that new men are constantly coming to the front, and in many cases they vanish as abruptly as they appear. One of these new arrivals, the present German Chancellor, Karl Joseph Wirth, has played a relatively inconspicuous part in public life. Like Friedrich Ebert, Prince Max, and Konstantin Fehrenbach, three of his predecessors in office during the brief career of the young Republic, he comes from Baden, the cradle of German democracy and republicanism. Like his immediate predecessor, Fehrenbach, he is the son of a country teacher, and in fact attended the same public school and the same secondary school as the latter. Moreover, the political career of the two men have been almost identical. The new Premier belongs to the Christian People's Party, or Catholic Centre.

After completing his preparatory studies, Wirth became a teacher in the scientific school at Freiberg, the city where he was born forty-one years ago and where he has resided constantly

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