The Daily News TUESDAY, JANUARY 21. THE EUROPEAN SITUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 328, 21 January 1909, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, JANUARY 21. THE EUROPEAN SITUATION.

It cannot be said that the anuiiyniuus hut accomplished writer of tlie Ill's I ai'- ' tide of Hie Fortnightly for last month dues anything to reassure us as to the European situation. The foundations of peace, aro weakening, lie declares; ''the position is one of unstable equilibrium tending to the overturn. . . . the balance of" probability .hats dipped towards tlie hazard of war." France lie indicates as the keystone of Europe: "We have seen it to be likely that France and her partners in the triple entente would issue successfully -from

I a European coullict, and that the great- , est -struggle history has known would at I least uriiig no advantage! to those who migh'i provoke it.. Yet, eiomparativclv reassuring as is this estimate, let us never forget two other things. If war shouht come our military weakness would tempt Cerinuny to any device, even before a. formal declaration of hostilities, by which sin invasion of this country might be compassed. In this sudden deliverv of llisil stroke would lie her only real hope. I'pon the other ■ hand, if democracy were fully trained to

defend, in the niuniciit of supreme crisis, the Empire it possesses and the liberty it enjovs. and to support with the last man.' if tired '!»'. Uio.e whose safely is vital to our own. we would bare something bitter even than successful war. We would have certain peace."' Another writer, asking who is the true author of the Austrian movement in tile Balkan", which has precipitated the prei sent unrest, scoffs at the idea that the I real culprit is llaron Achrenllial. She considers the Emperor has been led

awav by bis heir. "Unless all the omens are at fault, when Franz Ferdinand '■> | Emperor-King, his subjects may perhaps win laurels, but they will not sleep well o" ni'dits." "Viator" writes a chapter on liosnia and Herzegovina-not Hatterin" to those into whose hands these troubled States have fallen: "Europe ma.v perhaps be too cowardly—or too heavily bribed-to help the South Slays in the present emergency, but Austria has broken faith and will deceive again. The scheme for advance—at the expense of not only the: South Slav, but of Turkey—has not been abandoned. Far from it. Does it mean improvement ir. the lot of the people? No. 'When we advance next.' said some officers to me. 'we shall know better. We showed -too much mercy last time. Another time we shall give no quarter, and make place for a better population.'"