The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 14. A KETTLE OF FISH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8181, 14 August 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 14. A KETTLE OF FISH.

To students of European politics a cablegram from Constantinople on Monday is of pregnant interest. The I Sultan of Turkey, it read, is ill, and there is much excitement in conse-

quence of ,1 rumored operation. For a number of years the report lias been circulated that Abdul could not live long ; tliat lie was suffering from a dangerous disease, or fright, and the like; but up to now he has been sufficiently alive to checkmate diplomatists, keep the Ottoman Empire from disintegration, and to conserve Ins own interests. All abler diplomatist than Abdul perhaps does not live in Europe.

*#* * j If the report be tme and Abdul is to be operated on, tilings in that troubled part of the world will be tnore than ever interesting, and, particularly so if the Sultan, who is getting on in years—lie is now over sixty-four—dees not pull through. There are aspirants and rival on all sides in the Empire; outside there are Germany, Kussia, Bulgaria and Greece, like so many hungry dogs, waiting to snap up as much of the peninsula bone as they can. All Europe barks at the Sultan except Germany, who is passive. The one country now on friendly terms with Turkey is her late enemy, Greece. Turkey has made all sorts of concessions to her, concluded commercial treaties, and upheld the Greeks in South Macedonia in wresting churches and schools from other religionists.

* * * * In his latest book, " Pictures from the Balkans," John Foster Eraser, the well-known writer, gives one an insight into the situation, involved as it it is, one has never had before. Last year he travelled all over the Balkans. As that time, he says, the Peninsula was never so quiet. There were no wholesale massacres of peaceful Christians by ferocious Moslems, no lire and no campaign by the troops of the Sultan, no batches of outrages on peasant women by those wearing tho fez. And yet, if numbers count, Mr Fr.iser continues, there were

moie niarders in Macedonia in 1905 tliiin any of the years which have tlinlled Christian Europe. The reason h j ;, the barbarities have been scattered. "The Christian at Home, when toll, shudders, oilers a prayer that the div may soon come when the accursed Tuik will be swept oat of Euroje. . . . What the worthy E< g'ish Christian does not realise is iliat most of the murdering now going on in the Balkans is by Christians on Christians."

It ArrKAits that the whole of the Balkans is infested with rival Christian " bands," which terrorise villages and convert them from the Greek Cbuivli to the Bulgarian Church, or from tho Bulgarian Church to the Greek Church, at the dagger's point. The Turkish soldiers occasionally hunt these " binds," and alien found there is some quick killing. Tim Christians bate the Turk; bnt they h-ito e.ich. other more. According to the wiiter quoted, the genui..e problem before . nn-io who seek the welfare of the i! ilkan i eoplc is n A so much to remedy the incompetence of the Turk as to find a moans of checking the civil war which is Ivginiiin:; to r.ige between riv.il Cliristiui Churches. Tho adherents of ihe o Churches pape'.iate atrocities on each other as vile and inhuman as the Turk ever perpetrated on either, The Turk meanwhile quietly chuckles, Why should lie slay the Christians when they are so busily engaged slaying one another?

The Balkans, indeel, is a confusad kettle of fish. The ordinary man knows there is a tang'e of interests too complicated for I i u to understand. Ho does not try. In a rough way, however, he wonders why the Great Powers do not inimedi utely come to some agreement to remove the Turk, as a ruler, out of Europe That is what the Powers cannot do. Who shall have the JJalkans when the Turk goes ? The Russian has an eye on Constantinople. The Austrian has hoth eyes on Salonika, a splendid seaport facing the Aegean sea Russia forced Bulgaria from the Turks, meaning to use Bulgaria as a stepping-stone to the Bjsphorus. Austria used Servia as a pawn to prepaie the route to an Austrian port on the Aegean Sea. Both Russia and Austria were surprised and hurt that Bulgaria and Servia instead of being grateful and subservient, began to preen themselves and dream dreams ot a Great Bulgaria, and an extension ot Servia. About the same time the Greeks bcgan to remember that Greece once extended far into the Balkan region. Then Roumania startled everybody by the brilliant audacity of the claim that the Balkans were really Roumanian territory! * * * *

iSki: the welter! The Great Powers c mnut agree to clear out the Sultan. They know Russia and Austria want to annex the dispossessed region. Germany stands in the background ; she will have no part in bullying and badgering the Sultan to reform the Macedonian administration. The thankful Sultan accordingly gives Germans the most valuable concessions in the Turkish Empire. Germans grow more than ordinarily fat ami wealthy, Also they can atl'ord to smile. Tiiey know that though Austria und Russia may join France >nd P.citai.i and Italy in 'domaicling reform, reform is just the. tiling neiilicT Russia nor Austria wants. It is the disturbed condition of the peninsula which gives tbo two "ountries hope that their services may be required to come in with armies to secure poa>'e —and stay ! Germany thinks that over the little kingdom of Servia and the principality of Bulgaria, Austria will reach I Salonika, and Russia Constantinople. Germany sees far. She hopes Austria will get Salonika. Also she reckons that the Austrian Empire is doomed, that the Germany Empire must expand. She thinks she sees the not-distant day when Salonika will bo a German port.

+ * * * l-M.it Fk.vser lias formed conclusions. He siys: "Many .students of tlio Balkan problem are plunged in pessimism as to any .solution being possible. I inn not without hope, though lam ijiiite certain that pricking the Sultan will not lead to anything beneficial. I'lie idea that Macedonia may become peaceful under tlio Turk maybe put un ore side. The Macedonians theniseho*, being quite unfittol for self-government, must con-

sent —and they will consent if Great Britain, wiioso impartiality is recognised by all t!ie Balkan States, gives the lead -to ellicieut European control by the representatives of all tlio Powers. Bulgaria, Greece, Soryia, and Roumania ought to be given to understand that they need expect no territorial acquisitions, that Macedonia is a state unto itself. " Bands " and propagandists, whoover they are, must be repressed in the sternest manner. Then Macedonia will have an opportunity to develop; and in that development and consequent prosperity, I have some hopes that in

years to come the inhabitants will think less of their Turkish, Bulgarian or Greek origon and a gnat deal more of the fact that they are all Macedonians. And then only can self-government be conceded to Mice-1 donia. Behind that, however, I haw hopes there may be a Confederation of the Balkan S'ates, with the remainder of Europem Turkey a.s part of the confederation. So long as

there are half a dozen little nations open to attack by powerful neighbours, the Halkans will continue to be a region of unrest. A Confederation of the States for defensive purposes would, however, not only count for mutuil prosperity, but would remove the cause of the bad dreams from which European statesmen often suffer."