The papers of Thursday announced that the Conference of Ambassadors
had come to a wholly unexpected decision with regard to the Italo-Greck Dispute. The Conference requires that the whole sum of £500,000 lodged in the Swiss National Bank shall be paid by Greece to Italy. This cuts out the Permanent Court of Justice altogether. It will be remembered that with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations the Permanent Court was to determine the amount due from Greece as repar- ation for the Janina massacre, the £500,000 being a maximum amount. Evidently Lord Crewe hesitated to agree to what his fellow Ambassadors have just decided, but he was overruled. The majority apparently thought that the supreme consideration was to get the v.hola matter out of the way, and some culpable delay attri- buted to Greece in conducting the inquiry was alleged as justification. But nothing is really settled if, as is suggested by the few details available when we go to press on Thursday, political convenience has been pre- ferred to a judicial process. Greece may be fully guilty but that is just what we want to know for certain. We must say that the hurried subordination of the judicial solution to a diplomatic decision secretly arrived at causes us much misgiving. * * * *
