"3. They pledge themselves also in the interest of good and sincere relations between the two peoples in the future, to solve amicably the various territorial controversies on the basis of the principles of nationality and of the right of peoples to decide their own fate, and in such a way as not to injure the vital interests of the two nations, as they shall be defined at the moment of peace.
"4. To such racial groups (nuclei) of one people as it may be found necessary to include within the frontiers of the other there shall be recognised and guaranteed the right of preserving their own language, culture, and moral and economic interests."
The Polish delegates laid before the congress a special memorandum of their own from which we quote the following:
"The Polish question admits of no cut-and-dried solution and of no compromise. Poland will either be saved by the Allies or she will become dependent upon Germany, whether the latter is associated with Austria or not; above all, upon all-powerful Prussia.
"There is only one way of avoiding this latter alternative, and that is by countering the plans of the Central Powers with regard to Poland by the proclamation of the Polish programme, which is that of the Allies. This programme is the restitution to Poland of the mouth of the Vistula, of Dantzig and of the Polish portion of the Baltic coastline. This programme will prevent Lithuania and the Ukraine from becoming instruments of Prusso-German oppression and Austrian intrigue. It is only such a Poland as this which will be able to fulfil its historic mission as a rampart against the Germans.
"Its resistance will be still more effectual when united with that of an independent Czecho-Slovak State, and of a strong Rumania, healed of all the wounds inflicted by the war, and if, at the same time, the Yugoslav peoples achieve their unity and independence. The Poles, in claiming the Polish districts of Austria, declare themselves categorically for the complete liberation of Bohemia, which would otherwise be left at the mercy of the German-Austrians. The independence of neighbouring Bohemia is as necessary to an independent Poland as a great independent Poland is necessary to the very existence of Bohemia. The united forces of the Polish, Czecho-Slovak and Rumanian nations, forming a great belt from the Baltic to the Black Sea, will prove a barrier against the German 'Drang nach Osten.' For, since the collapse of Russia, these are the only real forces upon which the Allies can depend."
On the day following the congress its leaders were officially received by the Italian Premier, Signer Orlando, who conveyed to them the warm greetings of the government:
"We have seen with keen satisfaction this assembly here in Rome, where for centuries the representative spirits of all peoples and races have always found refuge, and where hard facts seem to assume a prophetic form and ideal meaning.
"These neighbouring nationalities are, in their turn, subjected to Austria, and it has only been the traditional astuteness of this state which has unchained the ethnic passions of the oppressed races, inciting one against the other in order more easily to rule them. Hence, it seems natural and necessary to follow the opposite policy from that which has so greatly helped the enemy, and to establish a solidarity sprung from common suffering. There is no substantial reason for a quarrel, if we sincerely examine the conditions of mutual existence, remember the mutual sacrifices and agree in our determination to grant just guarantees to those racial minorities which necessity may assign to one or the other of the different state groups.
"Italy should be able to understand better than any other country the aspirations of the nationalities, since the history of Italy, now completed, is simply your history now awaiting completion.... No other people, before forming itself into a free and independent state, had to undergo so long an apprenticeship, so methodical an oppression, such varied forms of violence. Like generous Poland, Italy was shattered, partitioned by strangers, and treated for centuries as a res nullius. The firm resolve of the Bohemian people to revive the glorious kingdom which has so valiantly stemmed the onset of the Germans is the same resolve which moved our ancestors and our fathers to conspiracy and revolt, that Italy might become a united state. The impetuous and vigorous character of the Southern Slavs and the Rumanians of Transylvania already has led to the making of heroes and martyrs; and here they are met by the endless stream of our heroes and martyrs; who across time and space fraternise on the scaffold erected by their common enemy.