Balkan War

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 157, 20 November 1912, Page 5

Balkan War

THE ATTACK ON MONASTiU. BRILLIANT SERVIAN TACTICS. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Belgrade, November 18. Twenty thousand Turks opposed the Servians at Monastir. In terrible weather, the Servians, who were often kneekeep in water, captured Oblaquova and Kochista heights, 3-000 feet, by brilliant night attacks. Simultaneously, the right wing threatened the Turkish retreat. The Turks made a desperate resistance, the Servians losing 250 men. The fighting is being continued. MONASTIR TAKEN. FIFTY THOUSAND PRISONERS. Belgrade, November 'lB. Monastir has surrendered to the Servians. Fifty thousand prisoners were taken, including three Pashas. King Peter attended a thanksgiving mass at Uskub. SERVIANS' AMBITIONS. RUMORED ATROCITIES. ' Vienna, November 18. Serb deputies of the Bosnian Diet passed resolutions in favor of Servia extending her territory to the Adriatic. The police dispersed Servian students making a demonstration at Serajado. Two Dalmatian Councils have been dissolved on account of their pro-Balkan sympathies. Ukranian students at Bukavana smashed the Russian Consulate windows, and were arrested.

The Austrian Consul escaped to Mitrovitza, where he is practically a prisoner. The Consul at Prizren was similarly treated, because he transmitted Austrian news of the Servian outrages. The Albanian Consul at Mitrovitza alleges that he saw many Albanian bodies floating in the river. THE ATTACK ON ADRIANOPLE. POSSIBILITIES OF THE SIEGE. Berlin, November 18. The military correspondent of the Lokal Anzciger pays that under the present conditions it would be possible for Adrianopie to hold out for two months. The Allies are still outside the range of the teal defences. The Turks were foolish to negotiate at present. The best Bulgarian troops had been decimated, and the last mnn and last rifle had been sent to the front.

HOSTILITIES AT CHATALDJA. Vienna, November 18. The Reichpost says that hostilities at Chataldja will soon cease. The Bulgarians' plan to secure the positions will exclude the possibility of a reverse as a condition of entering into negotiations for an armistice.

A GREEK VICTORY. Athens, November 18. The GTeeks have occupied Icaaia. . THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC. Berlin, November 18. The King of Bulgaria has summoned a German specialist to stamp out the cholera in the Bulgarian Army. THE TURKISH TROOPS. CHOLERA RAVAGES. KEEPING THE BULGARIANS QUIET. Received 19, 10.40 p.m. Constantinople, November 10. Correspondents at Hadomkeni state that Nazim Pasha is drilling his forces into some sort of order, but the morale of the Turks is doubtful. It is impossible to arouse enthusiasm among them. The Asiatic reservists are at permanent work, armed with heavy Krnpp guns. Sixteen thousand are distributed around Hademkeni, with their flanks defended by lakes and swamps. The Bulgarians, in forcing Hademkeni, must cross a road over an undulating plain. The weather is abnormally hot, and is assisting cholera, dysentery and enteric fever. Cholera patients are herded in a dump surrounded by barbed wire, but the precautions are futile. Outside victims are wandering in the gardens and fields, and are dying on the roadside. Soldiers, maddened with thirst, drink water infected by the corpses. CHATALDJA STILL DOMINANT. APPEAL TO THE POWERS. Received 19, 10.40 p.m. Constantinople, November 19. Only a few shots were fired at Chataldja yesterday. If the cholera has not attacked the forts, their resistance will easily last for weeks. Turkish accounts state that Mukhtar Pasha's division attacked and broke the Bulgarian formation and captured a number of guns. The Turks lost heavily. Official circles are more optimistic of the ability to hold Chataldja, encouraged by reports of cholera and typhus ravages among the Bulgarian ranks. It is reported that the Sultan has appealed to the sovereigns of the various Powers, requesting their mediation. Albanian residents have petitioned the foreign embassies requesting the Powers to secure autonomy. AUTOCRATIC SERVIA. GRAVE ALLEGATIONS. Received 19, 11.40 p.m. Vienna, November 19. The treatment accorded to the Consul and the uncertainty of the safety of M. Prochnska, Consul at Prizrend, is creating irritation against Servia. M, Pasics refused to permit an Austrian official to visit Prizrend to investigate, I and is pressing the right to communicate with the diplomatic representatives. According to an Albanian account, the Servians threatened to fire a shell on the Austrian Consulate at Prizrend unless admitted. M. Prochaska yielded. The Servians found the courtyard packed with Albanian women and children refugees. They converted the place into a shambles, and afterwards burst into M. Prochaska's room. He struggled with them, and they bayoneted him in the thigh. His present whereabouts is unknown. The Reichpost says that the fugitive Albanian leader Koldiha states that the Servians occupying Prizrend shot the population in the streets with machine guns, killing 111 men, 35 women, and 10 children. AUSTRIA AND ALBANIA. Received 19, 10.45 p.m. Buda-Pesth, November If). M. Berchtold, replying to a delegation, said there was no reason to dobut that the Balkan States appreciated and considered the high importance of establishing sound relations with Austria. Italy and Austria have agreed to Alautonomy. y. .......

ALESSIO OCCUPIED. Received 19, 10.45 p.m. Cettinje, November 19. It is reported that General Martinovitch has occupied Alessio. , THE PEACE TERMS. Received 19, 10.45 p.m. Sofia, November 19. The Cabinet is discussing the peace terms. Servia insists on acquiring part of the Albanian coast. CONTINENTAL INTERVENTION. Received 19, 11.40 p.m. Constantinople, November 19. Thirty-three hundred bluejackets of various nationalities, with Maxims, have landed at Pera. POWERS AND THE BALKANS. RIVAL AMBITIONS. An interesting review of the ambitions of Austria and Italy in the Balkan Peninsula, and especially with regard to Montenegro and Albania, was given in the Fortnightly Review early in the year. Mr. Barker said: — * The King of Italy, the Italian Government and the Italian people have shown that they take the strongest interest in i Albania. Numerous Italian travellers j have visited, studied and described the country, and numerous Italian capitalists have financed Albanian enterprises. I The Government has endeavored to befriend the Albanians, and to win their goodwill by creating and subsidising Italian schools in the country, and by sending there medical, scientific and charitable missions. It is worth noting that the Italian Government does not subsidise the Roman Catholic Church, except in the Balkan Peninsula, and especially in Albmia. It has created commercial agencies and has subsidised lines of steamers trading between Albania and Italy, and the result of these endeavors has been very gratifying to the Italians, but not at all pleasing to the Austrians. MONTENEGRO'S PART. The marriage of King Vittori Emanuele of Italy to the fourth daughter of King Nicholas of Montenegro, which took place in 189G, was not by any means dovoid of political significance. Already in 1890 Italy looked towards Albania as a promising field of expansion, and was concerned about the future of the Balkan Peninsula. The young Italian' King testified to his interest in the Balkans by marrying a Balkan Princess. Montenegro is the neighbor of Albania. The country is very small. It forms a natural mountain fortress of great strength. It has only 250,000 inhabitants, and the population is exceedingly brave and warlike . Montenegro is likely to play an important part in the settlement of the Balkan question. One daughter of the King of Montenegro-has married the King of Italy, another one has married the King of Servia, and two others have married Russian Grand Dukes. King Nicholas is on the best of terms with the King of Italy and the Czar of Russia. Owing to his powerful friends and relatives he wields an influence which is quite out of proportion ta the size of his country.. He is "the father-in-law of Eastern Europe," and his little State is a pivot of European policy. Montenegro stands, so to say, under Russia's and Italy's joint protection, and Russia and Italy have provided the little State with an ample supply of guns, rifles, ammunition, etc., for the country is too poor to supply its own arms. Thus Montenegro has become a fortified Rus-sian-Italian outpost on the road from Vienna to Salonika, and it is able to block that road. Herein lies its great importance.

AUSTRIA AND SALONIKA. Austria's ambition to acquire Salonika is nearly as old as Russia's ambition to acquire Constantinople. Austria recognised the strategical importance of Montenegro in connection with Salonika many years ago, and in 1879, at the Congress of Berlin, she took steps designed to bring Montenegro into her power. Article 2'J of the Treaty of Berlin placed the policing of the port of Antivari, Montenegro's only port, under Austria's control. It closed Antivari to the warships of all nations, and forbade the Montenegrins to have a navy of their own. It also allowed Austria to control the building of a road and of a railway in Montenegro. Last, but not least, Austria insisted in Berlin upon the cession of Spizza. a point which dominates the harbor of Antivari, and upon the right of fortifying it, and she obtained what she had asked for. When at the congress, Count Launay, the Italian plenipotentiary, asked why Austria wished to annex Spizza, and explained that Italy had special interests to guard in the Adriatic, Baron Haymerle, the Austrian representative, replied that the territory of Spizza covered only about half a square, mile, and had. a population of only about 350 families. Austria was guided in her demand by the consideration that the possession of Spizza, which dominates the port of Antivari, would ensure that Antivari and the surrounding coast should preserve a purely commercial character. Austria's real reasons are evident. The two most important towns in Montenegro are Cettinje, the capital, and Antivari its only seaport. Cettinje lies at a very short distance from the Austrian harbor of Cattaro. Spizza might be made to dominate Antivari and Cattaro Cettinje. Since the Treaty of Berlin, Austria has strongly fortified. Cattaro and Spizza, and has mounted heavy guns in both places. From the new Austrian fortress of Cattaro, shells can be thrown into Cettinje, and the guns at Spizza can easily destrov Antivari and the shipping in the port. * When the King of Montenegro looks out of the window of his paface at Cettinje, he can almost look down the muzzles of the Austrian guns mounted at Cattaro, and when he goes down to Antivari, his only seaport, he is within range of the Austrian guns at Spizza. Austria, has deliberately tried to strangle Montenegro. She is not beloved at Cettinje. SALONIKA'S FUTURE. Salonika is likely to become the most important harbor 'in the Mediterranean, being situated close to Constantinople and the Suez Canal, and on the most direct route from London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna lo the countries of Asia Minor and the Far East. It may in the future almost monopolise the European trade with the East via the Mediterranean. But in order to be able to hold that port. Austria must secure the possession of its hinterland, of Albania, and she cannot tolerate that Albania should fall into Italy's hands. Freiherr von Chlumecky wrote:— "The possession of Salonika is our hope for the future. At a time when \sia Minor has been opened to civilisation, and when railways cross Mesopotamia, Macedonia will flourish greatly, Salonika will become a place of very importance. However, the possession of Salonika could never make up for the loss of the Adriatic which would be. caused if Albania should become Italian. Salonika would be of value to us only as a complement to Trieste and Fiume." Two years pgo, on June 7, 1910, Signor Guicciardini, who at one time was Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in the

Italian Parliament: ''The principal interests of Italy are in the Mediterranean They centre round Tripoli and Albania. Whilst Tripoli is a great Italian interest, Albania is an absolutely vital interest of ours. We can never allow Albania to fall into the hands of a first-class Power, and we can still less allow it to fall into the hands of a second-class Power which belongs to the political system of a first-class Power. We have tolerated the' rise of Bizerta, but we cannot tolerate the creation of another Bizerta at Valona or at Durazzo."

Valona and Durazzo are the principal harbors of Albania. The foregoing quotations show —and many similar ones might be given—that Austria's and Italy's aims and ambitions in Albania are incompatible. . AUSTRIA'S AIMS. Apparently Austria's aims at obtaining the direct control of Albania, whilst Italy, in conjunction with Montenegro, aims at creating an independent Balkan Federation. The Serbians, Bulgarians, Croats and Montenegrins belong all to the Serbian race. They speak the same language, and no valid .reason against the co-operation of the different Serbian nations can be urged by any nation—except Austria-Hungary. The Austrian provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia are inhabited principally by Serbians. Austria-Hungary keeps all her different nationalities together by the principle "Divide et impera." The creation of a great Serbian confederation in the Balkans close to the Austrian fron-tier-r-there are altogether about 8,0,00,000 Serbians in the East of Europe, and of these about 3,000,000 live in AustriaHungary itself—might make her Serbian provinces untenable to Austria. King Nicholas of Montenegro is not only the greatest ; citizen, but also the greatest poet of his country, and his great ideal has always been that peace and prosperity should be created in the Balkan Peninsula through the co-opera-tion of all the Serbian Balkan nations. He has expressed this ideal in numerous poems, songs and dramas, which, as far as I am aware, have not been translated from the Serbian into the English language. If the problem of European Turkey should be resolved the creation of a great Balkan Confederation —and this solution seems quite feasible—the question of the presidency will arise. Possibly the presidency will be offered to the King -of Montenegro. Possibly, and perhaps one ought to say, probably, it will be offered to an Italian Prince or the King of Italy, upon the recommendation of the King of Montenegro. He might become Emperor of the Balkans. Italy would acquire a position of the greatest prestige and influence in the Balkans, a protectorship, but not a protectorate. However, Italy would first have to overcome Austria-Hungary's de-' termined opposition, for Austria will not easily give up her claims to Salonika. The policies pursued by Austria and Italy, not only in Albania, but throughout the Balkan Peninsula, are incompatible. Yet the Powers are allies.