RUMOURS OF WAR.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 331, 5 July 1875, Page 4

RUMOURS OF WAR.

The Y'enna correspondent of the Times, writing on April 17th, says : Scarcely have the war rumours sounded in the West began to die away when an attempt is made to revive them in the East. To the Russian paper Ooloss belongs the merit of having started them In a leader on the position of their Christian Slavonic brethren in Turkey, it comes to the conclusion that the state of things in the Balkan Peninsula is untenable ; that Turkey has shown her incapacity to (xist any longer as a State, and that Russia could not close her ears to the cries of the Christian Slavonic rations who are the natural heirs of Turkey in the Peninsula of the Balkan. If Prince Milan of Servia will not take the head in the war against the Turks, there is the Prince Karageorgewitch, and, above all,Nikith of Montenegro, the most popular Prince of the Slaves of Turkey. The 150,000 disciplined troops of Servia, and the 30,000 Montenegrins would, even unassisted, be quite a match for the Turkish Power. Jealous possibly of the laurels of the Berlin Court, one of our sensational papers brings a telegram from the Lower Danube, according to which symptoms of disturbances have shown themselves in the East, which have excited the timely attention of AustroHungary, and everything has been prepared to guard the frontiers and to localise the conflict. Were it not to the nervousness remaining from the last alarm and the likelihood of the new cry being taken up by those who seem to have an interest in causing alarm, this fresh cry of danger would scarcely deserve to be mentioned. As it is, it may suffice to state positively that there is not the least foundation in this rumour of preparation having been made or being contemplated by this country with a view to possible eventualities in the East. In Rcumania things have gone on more smoothly and quietly of late. The order which has been sent from Constantinople to Scutari ordering the execution of those sentenced to daath by the tribunal for their participation in the Podgoritza affair is considered as the first conciliatory step on the part of Turkey, which is to be followed by the mission of the Governor-General of Scutari, which is to appease the difference pending about the allair. Some persons are elated at the success which has attended the dissolution of the unruly Skoupschina, and reassured bj the loyal addresses which have come in from many parts of Servia, feel no misgiving about the future; but those who look a little beyond the surface seem to have not much confidence in the general stability of things there. They consider the late unmanageable assembly as the reflex of that confusion of ideas and parties which is spread all over the country, and the roots of which they trace far deeper than in a simple struggle between the different Ministries and the Assembly. The obstacle to a consolidation of things lies, according to them, in the absence of anything resembling dynastic feeling. The loyal addresses which have come in did not blind them about the state of isolation in which the young Prince finds himself and about the increasing efforts of his adversaries. There are—first, the partisans of the rival family of Karageorgewitch, who have been gaining strength since the reaction produced against them by the assassination of Prince Michael, which was attributed to them, has subsided. Since by the will of the late Prince a large portion or the Obrenowitch property went to the female branch, the family of Karageorgewitch is the wealthier of the two. In the last year a member of it has been staying in Constantinople, probably with a view to prepare the ground there. But more dangerous, _probably, are the efforts of the Ultra-National

or Otnbedina party. This literary association having its seat in Ncusatz, in Lower Hungary, which is mostly inhabited by Servians, who immigrated some 150 years ago, has become the focus of agitation for the great South Slavonic idea. It boasts of ramifications not only among the Serbs in Hungary and the military Croat district, but all over Servia and beyond, It expects but little from either an Obrenowitch or a Karageorgewitch on the Throne of Servia for the realisation of the schemes uniting all South Slavonic races into one State. Being in possession, either of these would try to keep what he has instead of risking it in new perilous ventures. Their candidate is the Prince of Montenegro, the representative of the old reigning family in the Herzegovina, who they think has too little to lose not to risk soraethin:g for a crown which (would eventually unite all the South Slavonic populations. All the troubles which have arisen lately in the Skoupschina are more or less traced to the influence of the Ombedina, and the question is whether the young Prince will be able to cope with these adversaries who undermine the ground from two sides. Instead of thinking, therefore, of molesting his neighbors, the young Prince may be well satisfied if he succeeds in keeping his own.