The Dominion THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1913. A CRISIS IN THE BALKANS

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1720, 10 April 1913, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1913. A CRISIS IN THE BALKANS

■ ■ 4 —■ — The attentive reader of the cable news, concerning the European situation will have detected a new flavour in the atmosphere, a flavour of impending war. It is really a very. astonishing thing that at no time hitherto has the struggle in the Balkan Peninsula really looked very perilous-to European peace, for until the war broke out it was almost generally agreed that a conflict between the Allies and Turkey might easily bo followed by a general European war. Crises, however, haye come and gone: alarming moments which did _ not really alarm anybody were quickly forgotten in the cheerful optimism that succeeded each of them. But it appears pretty certain that at last a real crisis has come. Six weeks ago the London Times was saying that "in every capital men breathe more freely," in an article in which it was complacently explained that, although the realities of the international situation had become grimmer and plainer to all the nations,, and especially to France,' almost the only matter for worry was the business of keeping well armed. Within the past six weeks the outlook has become very black, owing to the attitude of Austria towards Montenegro, and the defiance which that small kingdom has hurled, not only at Austria, but at the Concert of Europe. In taking up this firm attitude, Montenegro has been strengthened by its consciousness that, to use the phrase of the Daily Telegraph's St. Petersburg correspondent, it speaks with the voice of Slavdom. One can easily • understand the alarm with which both Austria and Germany have witnessed the collapse of the supposedly incollapsible Turk. Germany has never disguised her special concern for the maintenance of Turkish power in Turkey's corner of Europe; and Austria, as the "buffer" ally, has had greater than an ally's necessity to keep the Southern Slavs safely under the dominance of the Sultan. As Silt Haiuiy Johnston puts it in the March Nineteenth Century and After-. _ Austria is fully alive lo the supreme impor anco of the Balkan Peninsula and tho iilack Seu and Aegean coasts for her own industrial development, and lor access to the markets of tlin Levant. . lias Germany, - moreover, been buildiii" for years tho Baghdad railway in tliu belief that Turkey would continue to exist as her shield against the ambitions of Russia or Britain, that she should acquiesce now in tho complete frusl ration of Austrian plans in South-Hastem Europe, in a Russian seizure of Constant (inoplo, or a British abstraction of Mesopotamia? . . . Neither Austria nor Germany gauged tho military valuo of Bulgaria, or Serria or foresaw the resurrection of Greece. Their diplomatists and statesmen failed to realise the rottenness of Turkish administration or tile diminished value of tho Turk as a fighting man. . . . Consequently the plans for a German predominance in llio Near Hast were based 011 an alliance with Turkey, or at any rate a bolstering up of Turkey so that slio might servo as a cloak for tho Gennanisation of tho Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Syria, and tho Tripolitoine. The smash-up of the German and Austrian hopes, and the falsification i'f f.fciimates of the strength of the parties to the war have prompted Austria's threat to Montenegro. It is the reawakening of tho Slav spirit that lias strengthened Kino Nicholas in his'refusal lu be coerced j'-ven bv Austria. Tho London Tele-

graph's correspondent in St. Petersburg tells us that "the Slav agitation is spreading dangerously," and that the rccont military activities of Franco and Germany proceeded from a realisation of' the coming German-Slav conflict. The position of Britain, as stated by Sin Edward Grey, is not easy to understand. In the House of Commons he explained Britain's conjunction with the Powers demonstrating against Montenegro on the ground that the war in- Albania is no longer a war of liberation, but a war of conquest. This is obviously not the true reason, for Britain's action: indeed, it seems to be, and will be regarded throughout the Empire as being, quite trivial, however good 'it may be . for diplomatic purposes. There is little doubt that the bulk of mankind ardently sympathise with the Balkan League. The people of Great Britain have a reason for sympathising with them, for the citizens of our Empire can appreciate very well indeed the awakening of the Slav spirit, and they can sympathise with those who wish to sec a Slav Empire, with Russia at the head of it. The substitution of a Slav power for Turkish power in the Balkans will be disastrous to German hopes, as, indeed, the Chancellor confessed in the speech cabled to us yesterday. It will mean much more to Austria. In the Austro-Huugarian' E in])ire there are actually twenty-six million Slavs, but, as the Spectator says, "for purposes of government and influence .on _ high politics these twenty-six millions' are practically invisible." They arc dominated by the eighteen million Germans and Magyars; but the rulers of Austria have never felt comfortable. "Is it likely," the Spectator asks, "after the triumphant emergence of the Slav in the Balkans, that the most cilltiva,tod, the richest, and the bestcducatcd section of the. Slav race will bo content much longer to sit like. Cinderella in the corner among the potato peelings and the ashes?" The present crisis may end, chiefly owing to the tremendous weight of Britain, in a semi-surrendor to Austria, but'the Slavs will sooner or later rise as a race and change for ever the situation in Eastern Europe.