BALKANS TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1938, Page 16

BALKANS TODAY

THE TERM EXAMINED

WHERE DO THEY BEGIN?

One ol the results of the World War has been to bring the Balkans into Europe, says a writer from Sofia in the "Christian Science Monitor." The Continent's hitherto rather neglected and unkempt backyard is being transformed and its fences are being removed, j These fences have always been! political more than geographical. The barrier between -the Balkans and Europe was imaginary as far as geography goes. It was a battle front, the line back to which the European States had succeeded in driving the Turks. In a word, the Balkans began where Austro-Hungary left off. Their European border was the boundary between the Empire of the Habsburgs and that olf the Turkish Sultans.

There is, of course, a Balkan peninsula, named after a range of mountains in Bulgaria. It may be said to extend from the Black to the Adriatic Seas, and from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Carpathian Mountains. This delimitation," however, would not be universally accepted. Croatia and Dalmatia by no means. consider themselves Balkan. Nor does Greece either. It has not been a very enviable name.1

The reason is that the Balkans meant Turkey in1 Europe. It was taken to be a synonym of backwardness, illiteracy, crudeness, bad administration, and poverty. The Balkan peoples themselves considered their peninsula outside of Europe. When a Bulgarian or Serbian or Macedonian travelled west-he said he was going to Europe. When a wide-trousered merchant from Belgrade crossed the Danube or Save River, he considered himself passing from the Balkans to Europe. And it was not a fantasy. He was passing from Turkey of the Sultans to AustroHungary, and that really meant going from the Orient to the Occident, from insecurity and darknes^ to order and culture.

For a whole century previous to the] World War the Christian nations of, the Balkans, that is, the Bulgarians,, Rumanians, Serbians, Greeks, and Montenegrins were in conflict with ■ their Turkish masters and with each I other, so the Balkans were looked, upon as a scene of disorder. They were called hot-beds of war, and wars did begin there. A CORNER OF EUROPE. The Balkans, therefore, were taken to mean a corner of Europe, where the people were poor, primitive, and badly governed, and where strife constantly brewed. To Balkanise became a much used verb; it meant to divide up an area into small States antagonistic to one another. But that situation has now been fundamentally altered.

Between 1912 and 1918 Turkey practically disappeared from Europe1 and the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. Rumania incorporated large "European" territories and became Greater Rumania. Serbia merged with extensive "European" lands and became part-of Yugoslavia. So these two States are now ."Central European" and no.longer predominantly Balkan, either geographically-or politically. ,That old cultural ; b6undai?yi has been swept away. Europe 'is entering Yugoslavia and moving steadily, .forward; clear' to Bulgaria's western border. Europe is also penetrating into ■Rumania,: \eiear-to'. Bulgaria's northern border. It is even crossing these borders, now especially since Bulgaria and Yugoslavia have become friends, and is steadily transforming Bulgaria.

Geographically, therefore, it is more accurate to refer to this whole area as south-east Europe or the Danube Valley. To suggest-to the inhabitants of the Rumanian city, of Cluj or of the Yugoslav city of Zagreb that they are Balkanese is a grave offence.' They live in Danubia. ;

This is the largest, most productive, and politically most important river basin on the Continent and completely dominates the economic life of this area. It has a-very extensive network of large' and fecund tributaries.

' They form-a vast, life-giving network •that holds much of \ Europe together. They are ties binding • twenty racial' groups- and"more. than a hundred million persons in an economic and cultural unit. EXTENSIVE RANGE. Their reach isl very extensive, embracing all of Czechoslovakia, almost all of Austria, much of Germany, the whole of Hungary, most of Yugoslavia, the greater part of Rumania, and more than half-of Bulgaria. Bulgarian gardeners, Bosnian lumbermen, Tyrolese herdsmen; Hungarian harvesters, Bohemian glass-blowers, Bessarabian fishermen, and Bavarian dairymaids all live besides streams flowing into the Danube.

And now culturally ■ they are all being brought closer together. They merge in one civilisation, trade with each other, hear the*, same songs on the i;adio, and ride in the same railroad cars.

The chief source of their culture is Germany or the German nation. German songs, machines, ways of living, language, literature, methods of work and trade flow down the whole'course of the Danube.River to its Black Sea delta. The Austrians are among the main carriers of this culture.

They call that task their mission and are earnest about it. How relations here will develop politically one cannot say, but it is plain that the old barrier between the Balkans and Europe is being swept away and that Mother Danube is gathering all southeast Europe into her arms.

When the word "Balkans"'', is ■ still used to designate , a portion of the valley, it usually includes Yugoslavia, Rumania, Greece, Albania. Bulgaria, and a tiny piece of Turkey. It is a loose but handy term to designate Bulgaria and the territories which bound it. Generally 'speaking, the Balkans are the lower reaches of the Danube Valley., ■ ■' ;..'. •■ ''■ .7