The Dominion THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1919. PEACE AND THE BALKANS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 131, 27 February 1919, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1919. PEACE AND THE BALKANS

While the Peace Conference, so far as its visible activities are concerned, has been giving most of its attention to a few central issues of the wsr settlement a- number of sub-. sidiary' questions, though they are in themselves highly important, have, dropped into the background. For instance, very little has been heard in recent weeks about the Balkans, and yet problems are raised in that area which will demand the. highest exercise of statesmanship in their solution. Although the Balkan Peninsula .was the storm-centre in which the war had its immediate origin there may be an undue disposition to assume that its hitherto warring peoples will now as a, matter of course adjust their differences, ■ and henceforth live peacefully side by side. It is probably nearer the truth that, nowhere in the world is there greater need of the disinterested international action which is contemplated in the League of Nations project than in the Balkans. It is no longer a matter of Great Powers interposing in Balkan affairs in their own interests or in order to checkmate the 'ambitious schemes of rivals. But there is much to be done in composing differences and promoting a just settlement of disputes, and anything that is accomplished in this direction, of course. Will assist to safeguard general peace. In many respects the outlook in the Balkans is already incomparably better than it was prior to the armistice. Obviously \t_ is an enormous gain from this point of view that of the two Empires which so recently attempted to utilise the Balkan Peninsula as a pawn in their schemes 'of predatory conquest ona is resolved into its elements, while the other is in bonds awaiting judgment. . At the samo time there are movements local to the Balkans which make for stablo peace in years to coine. Serbia and Montenegro, after their awful martyrdom in the war, have not only' recovered their birthright, but are linked, t.p in a political union that promises to endure with the Southern Slavs lately subject to the HapEburgs. The Greeks, under then , great leader Venizelos, are again in full possession of their constitutional rights and in a position to champion the cause of their compatriots in areas' outside the existing borders of Greece. Rumania also, after suffering fiery trials, is on the threshold of- a- great future. She has already recovered her former province of Bessarabia, and no doubt is in a fair wa.y to obtain tho Transylvanian territory to which she is entitled on grounds of nationali.ty. All these developments, in which people of common race are taking up their natural groupings, promise well for the future. The chief item to ,bo set down on ' the other side of the account is the.uncertain attitude of Bulgaria. In spite of the disastrous outcome of her union with the Teutonic Powers, it is still fa_r from certain that this truculent little State has learned the wisdom of living in amity with its neighbours. . Some pooploin Britain and elsewhere are inclined to make excuses for Bulgaria, and to regard continued suspicion of her motives as chiefly the outcome of Greek and Serbian promptings based on hatred and jealousy. Such opinions, however, will not bear examination.' It is by this time a matter of history that at one critical- juncture after another Bulgaria, was the chief obstacle to the close and friendly understanding between . the Balkan' States from which.they have all so much to gain, and that in acting this part she assisted notably to. bring fearful calamities upon the world, from the effects of which she has riot herself escaped. The.root of the matter is touched by a recent writer, who refers to the circumstances in which the Balkans became an armed camp, which, however, "by a marvellous combination of good luck, , was. turned against Turkey,, and "all but succeeded in solving the Near Eastern question." The measure of Bulgaria's offending and of the harm she wrought is taken when the actual sequel to the first Balkan \Var is contrasted with what might have happened. When Turkey had been overcome in the field, and dispossessed of all but a small part of her European territory, the conditions were eminently favourable to the establishment of a strong leaguo of the Balkan States which would have secured their own interests and safeguarded European peace. With, the Balkan States solidly united, Germany and Austria no doubt would have hesitated to force a European war. It'was due mainly to Bulgaria's insensate greed tha't these iair prospects were destroyed Her wild attempt to- despoil her allies met with its appropriate reward, but, by reviving the flames of national hatred in the Balkans, it also gave the Germanic Powers the opening for which they were looking. Her subsequent dealings with these Powers and her infamously treacherous attack- on Serbia and invasion of Greece were the logical development of the perverted policy to which she had resorted.

■ Bulgaria has such an evil record that it is, , evidently incumbent on , the nations associated at the Peace Conference to curb her power for harm in every possible way. Provided means are devised of reducing her to order, it should be possible to constitute the Balkan League on a broader basis than was thought of before the war. According to a statement recently elicited by van American interviewer from a high Greek authority in London, preliminary steps in this direction have already been successfully taken. The new league, it was explained, will be far more comprehensive than that which Bulgaria wrecked. ■ If, will embrace, besides Greece,' the newly-constituted, Czechoslovak State, a unified Rumania, and the , federated Southern Slav State in which Serbia and Montenegro are now included. "With all these peoples," it was added, "Greek diplomacy, under M. VeniZelos's direction, has reached a complete agreement before oven the Peace ference at Paris begins its formal deliberations." As might be expected, it is held that Bulgaria's admittance to the confederation must be dependent upon evidence 6f her genuine repentance and fitness to participate. While it is impossibld to ignore the bitter ani-

mosifcics which Bulgaria has clone so much to intensify and the obstacles they offer to sound progress, the hope is certainly brighter than ever before of establishing in and beyond the Balkans a confederation of States linked by community of interest, able to co-operate to their mutual benefit in matters of land transport and access to the Mediterranean coast, and with good prospects of peaceful and prosperous development.