THE WORLD'S PEACE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1614, 4 December 1912, Page 7

THE WORLD'S PEACE.

WAR DANGER LOOMS,

TSAR'S ARMY MOVING.

GERMANY READY TO FIGHTBy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec: December 4, 0.5 a.m.) Vienna, December 3. The "Reichpost" states that half a million Russian, troops are concentrated in Poland. All the frontier corps are on iv war footing, while the Polish regiments havo been, transferred to tho interior or tho Caucasus. , ' A hundred Kussian spies'were recently arrested in Galicia, in Austria-Hungary.

GERMANY READY TO FIGHT. Borlln, December 2. The German Chancellor, Herr von Bethmaim. Hollweg, has declared that Germany will fight if another Power intervenes between - Servia and Austria. The Chancellor adds .that the Powers are exchanging views, and that there is every prospect of success. It would, however, only be known, how the ers were affected when the Balkan Allies had arranged terms between themselves. Germany intended to maintain a policy of friendship with.'Turkey, but would also strengthen her relations with tho Balkan States, . especially in tho economic field. ' If forced to fight on Austria's behalf, said the Chancellor, the whole of the German people would be behind the Government. '

POWERS STILL IN ; ACCORD. (Rec. December 3, 10 p.m.) • ' Berlin, December. 8. The Chancellor, HerT von BethmunnHollweg, states that while Germany is not immediately, affected by the events in the Balkans she is entitled to, co-. operate in the reorganisation, especially in Tcgard to' the maintenance 'of the guarantees to Turkey's creditors. Moreover, ,in the regulation of many questions Germany will have to layherword' in. the scale in the interests , of her al-, lies. The exchange of views between the Powers has progressed in a conciliatory spirit, and there is every prospect of success. Herr von Kiderlin-Waechter, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in replying to Herr Ledebour'a charge that the' Government had fomented a quarrel with Britain) said that throughout the crisis the relationship with England had been especially confidential, frank, and absolutely/trustful.' The exchange of views had not only evoked a gratifying intimacy, but had Tendered good service to the understanding of the Powers. He is confident that these relations would continue. ,

TRIPLE ALLIANCE RENEWED, (Rec.'December .4, 0.5 a.m.) Berlin, December 3. The "Frankfurter Zeitung" reports that the Triple Alliance has been renewed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

PEAQE TERMS. .USrMX -k h.fi '..-'•.. GREECE STILL FAVOURS WAR. • POWERS' ADVICE TO TURKEY, (Reo. December 4, 0.5 a.m.) Sofia, December 8. If the negotiations for an armistice fail the blame will rest with Greece who desires to continue the war. The other Allies are in favour of peaoe. King.Ferdinand, of Bulgaria, has gone to Chatalja. It is reported that Great. Britain, Russia, and Germany have advised Turkey to make peace. (Rec. December 8, 0.5 a.m.) Constantinople, December 8. It is bdieved that Greece's terms for an armistice are the surrender of Yanina. and Scutari, and that she objects to raise tho Albanian coast blockade. ■

AT ADRIANOPLE, AEROPLANE RECONNAISANCE. London, December 2. Mt. Bennett Burleigh, the "Daily Tel©, graph's" correspondent, who is at Mustafa Pasha, seventeen miles north-west of Adrianople, reports that two aviators aeroplaned over Adrianople, and observed that the Selim Mosque and the most important buildings of the town are undamaged. The Turks fired a shell from a gunpit, which just missed the aeroplane. In consequence of the bombardment of the Karagach barracks near Adrianople, the railway station caught on fire, the blaze spreading to the buildings in the vicinity. ■ Later. The bombardment of Adrianople is being continued.

TURKISH REINFORCEMENTS, HUGE INFLUX FROM ASIA. Constantinople, December 2. Over eighty thousand fresh Asian troops have arrived at Chatalja. The Bulgarians are entrenching six miles west of the Turkish positions. Constantinople, December 2. The Turkish Foreign Minister utate? that the negotiations with the allies havo been confined to the question of an armistice;, though he believes peace is assured. DRENCHED IN BLOOD,. MASSACRES IN MACEDONIA. Salonika, December 2. The foreign attaches unstintedly praise the Servian infantry, While the artillery is excellent the cavalry is mediocre. Macedonia is being drenched with the blood of innocents, due to the withdrawal of the Bulgarian regulars to Thrace, leaving the conquered territory at the mercy of the auxiliaries. Thero has' been enormous and indiscriminate slaughter in the Avrethissar district, where scarcely , a Moslem has been left alive. The Armenians, who joined the Bulgarians, were responsible for the Kavala massacre, the leader of which revenged the massacre of his family at Adana. The Servians havo a better record, while no massacres are recorded against the Greeks, who controlled their auxiliaries effectively. There are 30,000 refugees here from Macedonia. Tho Greeks aro succouring them. ' ' THE WESTERN CAMPAIGN. TURKS MARCHING SOUTH, (Rec. December 4, 0.5 a.m.) i Athens, December 3. Zekki Pasha, with the Monastir troops, is endeavouring to junction with tho army at Yanina, in Epirus. The prisoners taken at Salonika included a thousand officers. Seventy oan» jioiii thirl?, ta&chluo guiw, jwo Uiougaaj,

horses, and 75,000 rifles, were also captured.

NOTABLE PRISONERS. (Eec. December 4, 0.5 a.m.)

Sofia, December 3. Tho prisoners taken at Dedegach, by tlio Bulgarians when tho Turkish divisions surrendered, included Mahomed Javer Pasha, Commander-in-Chief of tho Kirdjali Army Corps and Hamid Bey, his Chief of Staff.

STARVING DESERTERS. Constantinople, December 2. Two thousand five hundred deserters

and derelicts quartered ot the Mosque of St. Sophia, aTe clamouring for food and water. Fifty dio daily from cholera and dysentery.

PEACE OF EUROPE. DEPENDENT ON WILL OF TWO MEN. RUSSIA'S POLICY. A sanguinary European war, as a oonsequenoe of the Balkan conflict, is in signt, so wrote the St. Petersburg correspondent of the London "Observer" on October 19. Its shadow, lie added, has already flung itself like that of a poisonous Upas tree athwart nations and individuals who hold aloof from politics. And the only guarantees', now possessed by Europe that tho tremendous calamity will be successfully warded off are the clear vision and firm will of the two statesmen who watch over the respective interests of Austria-Hungary and Russia. Count Berchtold and M. Saaonoff hold the destinies of Europe in their hands. These two Ministers are unknown to the general public which derives its political views from tho daily newspapers, and when these announce that Austria is preparing to occupy Servia, or .Russia is mobilising with, a view to march into Austria, average people are filled with app'rehonsion, and punics on the Exchange are natural and inevitable. The Russian public is constantly in dread of the "Austrian Military party under the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, while the Austrian and Hungarian peoples are kept in a state of chronic disquiet by circumstantial stories about the machinations of the "all-powerful Slavophile Society, against which the Tsar's own Government is powerless." ' Now, it is of the highest importance that these clouds of misrepresentation should be dispelled and the real facts made known. I am in a position to do this, having just hud the advantage of hearing the views of the principal statesmen of Europe from their own lips. I write therefore with personal knowledge to guide my pen. Panslavism in Russia is represented by Austrian journals, and particularly by the "Neue Freio Presse, as the great, nay, the unique, danger to the peace of Europe. The Russian Government, we are told, may discourse eloquently of the advantages of peace and may announce its readiness to purchase the boon by heavy sacrifices, but all these declarations are mere words. Tho one real forco in tli<) country is Panslavism. 'With this headstrong current the monarch himself is 6wimming, and when the critical hour strikes, it will sweep away all the breakwaters relied upon by. timorous, wavering diplomacy and let the miseries of war flood Europe.

Such is "the diagnosis made by serious and well-informed Press organs like tho Austrian journal already mentioned and tho "Kolnischo Zeitung," whoso St. Petersburg correspondent affirms that Russia's foreign policy is being shaped bv non-official influences, which have proved so successful that forty-eight hours would now suffice .to set the whole country in patriotic which the Government, with the best will in the world, would be unable to quench. And these sketches are received with credence by the mil- ■ lions : who possess Ino'i /standard -by. -which to gauge the amount of ■ truth they may contain.

The average newspaper reader in Great Britain, Prance, and Austria can hardly be blamed for giving car to those disquieting statements, lor the notionalist section of the Russian press confirms tliem. Almost every day. one may read there that Russia's opportunity has come at last; that Turkey's hour has struck; that the Slav nations must now stand together, assert th»ir rights, and, if necessary, fight for them against tho common enemy.

Russian Apprehensions. It is impossible to read the great Nationalist organ "Novoe Vremya without being impressed by the conviction of those writers on it who . daily inoculate the public with these opinions. Take, for example, t'ha beginning of a powerful article which appeared in that journal a few days ago, signed by the l'rince of Russian journalists. Mi Menshikoff:— /'The second Slavo-Turkish war in our time has been declared, and again it is ushered in, as in 1876, by Montenegro. Again Servia and Bulgaria are about to be drawn into it, as in those days. Again, after painful deliberat : on, Russia will, perhaps, see herself obliged, to bear the. cross of war. Did we desire war in 1876? Did not our Government then withstand as long as it could the Slav rising, wircli was then spreading? . . . Our Government at first _ looked askance upon the growth of racial sympathy for our Slav brothers amongst the Russian people. The volunteer movement here was checked. And, in spite of it all, the march of events, independent of our will, and immutable, compelled us to go to war. . . . And to-day I hold that, however insensate it would be for us to incur the risks of a European war . . . none the less it is the height of wisdom to make ready for the worst and to prepare for it day and night." The writer then goes on to unfold the official policy of the Powers of Europe and to condemn tho Russian Foreign Ofnoe for .seconding it. Tho other States, for whom "tho Slav peoples are no more than so many niggers," have declared it to be Stair fixed resolve not to allow any change in the territorial status quo. Therefore exclaims tho publicist:— "Slav Macedonia, which has been pining away in Turkish slavery, must be left to go pn pining there tall tho crack of doom, even though the Slav States succeeded in beating the oppressors and driving them out of Europe. In this case the great Christian Powers would move their armies against the Slavs, and would not only reinstate tho Ottoman Government in Constantinople, but . . . Can it be that they will force Russia, too, to join in this unnatural, this impious policy? Can it le that Russia will also en? dorso the threat to maintain the status quo by force?" And in another passage of the same article, the writer, passing from the negative to the positive side of Russia's action, writes: "The starting point for the vital policy or Russia,' if it were properly understood among us, is the insufficiency of our territory in tho south and of opon sea. Of tho north and the east we have more than enough," M. Sazonoff's Policy, The truth is that M. Sazonoff represents the Imperial policy of Russia, and represents it to tho {satisfaction of his Imperial master. Russia needs peace, and cannot afford to be dragged into a European war. That is the basic fact on which her Near Eastern plan of diplomatic action is built up. It is acknowledged on all hands, even by the 'writers of the Nationalist Press. That being so, tho noxt important questiou is, how to keep out of a European war, and tho answer is, by not bringing it on. For there can and will be no European war unless Russia and Austria fall out: and these Powers can quarrel only ovor the •shifting or territorial frontiers and a change in tho balance of political forces in South-Eastern Europe. i Keep things as they aro, therefore, and the doors of the Janus Temple may be closed. Things as they are, it may be argued, are so bad that they could hardly bo worse. They aro answerable for tho Balkan war, and it would be wise, instead of making two bites of a cherry, to disposo of tho matter once for all now that blood has been shed. To this objection tho answer is that tho Powers admit the need of improving the administration of the vilayets of Macedonia and Adrianople, and that they aro prepared to insist on reforms as radical as may prove compatible with tho sovereignty of tho Sultan and tho integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Further, the well-being of Macedonia is undoubtedly a proper object for Russian forethought and beneficence, but tho of tho Rumlun nutinn oamts Jfeifa AM &.2SK&Bfi&ajSBS _ %.

tremendous prico to pay for Macedonian reforms which are already assured. Thoso are the principles which underlie the Near Eastern policy of official Russia. That policy has the Tsar's approval, is, in fact, liis own. Nobody is better disposed for tho Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula than Nicholas 11. Ho has accomplished much and undertaken much more for their well-being. But thero art, sacrifices which he, as head and leader of tho Russian people, will not, cannot, consent to. And one of these is the saci. fice of the peace of Europe. With M. Sazonoff tho Emperor is satisfied, and, judging by what one hears in the Emperor's environment, thero is not the slightest ground for the supposition that the Minister for Foreign Aftairs will be disavowed or dismissed. On the contrary, he may shortly bo made the recipient of a high distinction. The Tsar's Prudence. In Russia the Tsar alone transacts the public business of the nation. He may and does delegate his power to his Secre tary for Foreign Affairs, but does not a'; low the reins bo slip from his own hands. Russia's policy, even those aspects of i, which have been most severely criticised since 1906, is tho Tsar's. If his will werparamount he would have shaped it differently. But, allowing for iron circumstance and historical necessity he appears to have drawn the maximum amount of profit from ever-ohanging and not always auspicious events. The conventions witli Great Britain, partnership with Japan, friendship with Germany, frankness with Austria-Hungary, _ are all evidences of statesmanship which should be borne in mind by the averago man when he is informed that the Russian Government may be forced into war this winter. In sober truth this danger is a journalistic hallucination. Russian Panslavism, which has played an important and nobi. part in the history- of the Slav race, i: Russian first and Slavophile afterwards.