Untitled

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 272, 24 April 1914, Page 4

EUROPE'S POWDER MAOAZINJE. Since the Balkan States have exhausted themselves by war, and have no "stomach" for further fighting, Turkey has become emphatically the powder magazine of Europe; and in the. midst it is easy to picture the Sublime Porte as sitting' on a harrel of gunpowedr, smoking a cigar, and calculating how to maintain the Ottoman Empire by playing off one European Power against another. The threatened trouble in Albania seems likely to pass over, and Turkey will also •bide her time in the matter of seeking to regain the lost Aegean Islands. The only real cause for alarm is to be found in the instability of Turkey. The world at large ig convinced that the reign of the Turk in Europe is drawing near a close, and that there will soon be something like a scramble for his territory in Asia Minor, as well as on the European side of the Bosphorus. According to a special message to the ''New York American" from a well-informed correspondent in Paris, the hereditary quarrel between France and Germany has now tnken the form of a struggle for the possession of Asia Minor, "the gate to India and the Par East," which threatens to result in ' ; the greatest war since the Napoleonic epoch." It is alleged thai Clermany has a fixed policy with re-

gard to Turkish territory. She is bent upon obtaining large mining and railway concession* in Asia Minor, as well as a naval base in Lcvantino waters. It was in pursuance of this policy that Germany insisted upon sending a military commission to Constantinople, to re-organise the Turkish army and the defence of the capital, which was carried out against the wishes of Turkey, but with the consent of the European Powers. The counter-move of Turkey was to call in as general advisers to the Government the well-known French journalist and philosopher, M. Jean Finot. His work is to consolidate the Ottoman Empire and so organise its internal affairs that it will present a bold front to all enemies and be able to resist German influence. M. Finot, who won a public expression of admira-

tion from Gladstone in 1895 for his campaign against the Armenian atrocities, has* always stood for a constitutionally governed Turkey, and he was the redoubtable enemy of Abdul Hamid, who toward the close of his reign sued M. Finot for 'lese majeste." Much depends upon how the French philosopher carries out his present task, for it is conceivable that, should he succeed in uniting the Turks and give promise of successfully reorganising the Empire, Germany may make counter demands that will precipitate a conflict. According to the Paris correspondent already quoted, recent negotiations between France and Germany on the subject of the Alsace and Lorraine were the direct outcome of the rivalry between the two nations in Turkey. It was stated that the Kaiser was willing to grant Home Rule to the two conquered French provinces, out this was considered an inadequate concession by France. It is assumed that if Genmany surrendered Alsace and Lorraine entirely, France would not oppose the Kaiser's designs in Asia Minor; but it remains to be seen whether Germany will agree to a concession that would be interpreted as a. great loss of prestige. In the meantime, there is a respite, and Turkey is once more in the position of profiting by the divided interests and ambitions of European Powers.