The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1913. THE END OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 300, 12 May 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1913. THE END OF THE WAR.

The gallant Montenegrins having yielded to the pressure of the Powers, and ] in a manner which adds further lustre i to their escutcheon, the war in the Bal- f kans may be said to have ended. An i armistice lias been arranged between the Allies and the Turks, preliminary to the holding of a second peace conference. ( There is little probability of it ending '< as the first confeerncc ended. The com- [ batants are heartily sick of warfare, * money to prosecute it further is un- ] available, whilst the Powers have dc- 1 creed they will tolerate no further fight- 1 ing. The end has therefore come to a campaign which in many respects j is unique in, history. But, with : its conclusion there has been no ' end to its effects on the whole ■ of Europe. The rise of the Bal- , kan States and the conquest of Turkey- 1 in-Europe by them have altered the ' whole position, and resulted in an enormous, addition to the already heavy cost , of war preparations. And why? For 1 this reason and no other, contends that } brilliant writer, "Linesman," so well 1 known in the English reviews, because ! the Turks have been beaten, and with i their fall arise dangers a thousand times [more dangerous than existed when they ! still stood upright in Thessaly and Thrace. Had the Turks won, not a man j or a coin would have been added to the military impost of any nation in Europe. | Wherein, then, he asks, lies tlie cause of rejoicing at the avatar of these gods from Olympus, the "brave young nations" of the Balkans? Surely they have come not to bring peace, but a forest of swords into the world. Their victory, in short, won though it has been by selfsacrifice, is nothing short of a world catastrophe, for it lias flung civilisation tback in an instant of time into the torments and deliriums of the Napoleonic era. Into worse torments; war in 1813 was less exhausting than peace in 1913; it is more dreadful and anxious a thing to be safe to;day than it was to be conquered a century hack. As for Turkey, it has been a complete debacle. The dramatic feature of the situation is that after centuries of misgovernment and oppression and bloodshed, the- Turk, for all practical purposes, quits, Europe by the unanimous assent of the great Powers. Turkey is merely left the wreck and the remnant of her empire in. Europe, namely, the Dardanelles,, Constantinople, and the peninsula running up to the Enormidia line, Her future as an empire lies now in,the consolidation of her territory in Asia Minor, and ■ it is to enable her to do this work effectively that the Powers refuse to permit her to be squeezed into bankruptcy on a Bjsmarckian principle. Next to Turkey the severest sufferer is probably Montenegro. Her lit% : .kingdom has exhausted itself of blood and, treasure, and taken upon itself the brunt of the heavy fighting to secure the' downfall of the Turks, and now by the firm insistence of the Powers, and particularly of Austria, it is deprived of the fruits of conI quest. Servia also has had to knuckle under to the greater ambitions of the larger Stater. The possession of Scutari was vital to Montenegro and the outlet at San Grovanni de Medna or Durazzo vital to Servia. The configuration of the country makes these divisions natural, even if Servia to-day were not an imprisoned nation, Austria, however, seems determined to act as gaoler to Servia. Bulgaria, the Prussia of the Balkans, has for the moment been silenced. Her demand a few weeks ago were a strip of territory on the Sea of Marmora which would make her coguardian of the straits with Turkey, and a momentary indemnity of thirty million pounds. To this Turkey has demurred emphatically. Inextricably intertwined with the situation is the predominancy of Russia or Austria in Eastern Europe. "The Eastern situation," says the Times Vienna correspondent, "has been poisoned ever since the annexation of Bosnia by Austria in 1909." That crisis be- ; queathed a sorry legacy to Europe and Russian and Austrian distrust of one another is ns strong as ever. Austria, J wishing to create a buffer kingdom, is advocating "Albania for the Albanians," ■ but the Montenegrins, having spent their best blood and all their treasure in the . subjugation of the country surrounding Scutari, if not of the city itself, insist that they must reap the reward of their human sacrifice, and in their hour of J travail they appealed to Russia for assistance, because the Romanoffs have for generations been the political godfathers of tlie Balkan peoples. Montenegro's aspirations are shared by Servia and by Bulgaria. Sir Harry Johnston, in an article in the Nineteenth Century, has endeavored to indicate the manner in which the problem now before the Powers will be brought to solution. His pro- , posals include free trade for all countries over the Turkish Empire in Asia, the apportionment of the Turkish public debt over all the countries which have formed part of the Turkish Empire in Europe, Asia or Africa since the beginning of the twentieth century; the transference to Great Britain of the Turkish suzerainty over Cyprus, . Senalos and Egypt; the assumption by France of a protectorate over Trebezond and Armenia, the retention #f Rhodes by Italy, the restriction of direct Ottoman rule

to a new Turkish Sultanate extending

from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf, but this sultanate to be under German protection with its foreign affairs conducted, and its finance controlled by the German ambassador, much as Egypt is supervised by Great Britain. Sir Harry Johnston considers that if these proposals are considered too drastic the diplomatists may prefer to carve the Turkish dominions into spheres of influence attributing each part of the Ottoman Empire in Asia and Egypt, to the- exclusive supervision and financial control of a single Power.