The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1912. THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 182, 19 December 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1912. THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

The Peace Conference, which is mooting in the quietude of the nosiest city in the world, lias been adjourned until Thursday for the settlement of a question of personnel, and, in the meantime, the Balkan war is. practically speaking, at a standstill. It cannot be said that the outlook, in view of to-day's cable-

grams,-is very encouraging for a pea.ee- | fill settlement.. The Bulgarians and ♦heir allies have sacrificed too much to be content with a merely nominal acknowledgment of their successes, and they demand not only a very substantial ratification of the Turkish frontier tut the surrender of Adrianople as the price of peace. The Allies are, apparently, unanimous in their views, and if Turkey refuses to give up Adrianople there is every probability that the armistice -will be closed and the war will be resumed. The Turks, of course, have utilised the armistice to strengthen their position at Adrianople and on the Chataldja lines, so that they are now probably less disposed to accept term* which they might have come to some few weeks ago when they were apparently in extremis. The terms as suggested are undoubtedly somewhat humiliating, even when due allowance is

made for the principle of the spoils to the victors, and it is doubtful, therefore, if the struggle has more than reached its infancy. In spite of M. Daneff's assurance that the Allies thoroughly understand each other, and also know how far the Powers will permit them to go, it seems almost humanly impossible to devise terms of settlement that will satisfy Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, Montenegro and Turkey, and still be acceptable to Austria, Russia, Germany and Italy. Under the circumstances it is a little bit futile to speculate as to the probable course of events at the confercence, but M. Daneff's reference to the ' views of the Powers shows clearly enough that even if Bulgariii acquires Adrianople and divides Macedonia with Greece, and confines the Turkish Empire in Europe to very narrow limits around Constantinople, two questions of momentous importance will still remain to be decided —the possession of the islands in the Aegean Sea and the control of the Adriatic coastline. The Aegean Isles, by all the rights of history and of art, are the natural patrimony of the Greeks, but both Austria and Germany have "more than hinted that they may feel inclined to look in this direction to indemnify themselves for any material advantage that the Allies may secure elsewhere. As to the Adriatic coast, Servia's ambition to secure an outlet there runs counter to Austria's cherished project of a railway through Novi-Bazar and a highroad southward towards Salonika. Moreover, Italy has designs of her own in regard \ to naval supremacy in the Adriatic, and there is reason to fear that this question of an Adriatic port for Servia may yet shipwreck the well-meant efforts of the Powers to secure peace. It is certainly encouraging to learn that Austria's tone towards Servia is more conciliatory, especially in regard to the much-discussed Proehaska incident, ari that she is prepared to concede an Adriatic port for commercial interests, provisionally on its lieing served by a neutral railway. This, of course, is a coun-ter-move to Russia's plan of a railway from Rouniania, via Servia, to the Adriatic, cutting across Austria's own proposed connection between Serajeva and Mitrovitza. But the world cannot ignore the significance of Austria's extensive military preparations, and the elaborateness of the rapprochement between the Archduke and the Kaiser. It is well known that when the late Count Aehrenthal engineered the annexation of the two Turkish provinces in 1008 he was only carrying out the Archduke Ferdinand's designs, and it is something more than Sinister that Franz Ferdinand should have come to the front at this juncture. The whole position bristles with political and diplomatic difficulties, and much as we may hope from the fact that the venue of the conference has been fixed in a city where there is comparative quietude so far as European complications are concerned, there must remai]} a very grave doubt as to "sweet reasonableness" prevailing .where so many Qondictin^ interests are concerned.