THE BALKAN CRISIS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3016, 12 October 1908, Page 5

THE BALKAN CRISIS.

WAR ADVOCATED. A WARNING TO SERVIA. AUSTRIA DETERMINED. Received October 11, 4.lF> p.m. CETTJNJE, October 10. A large meeting of Serbs and Turks at Uskab advocated war against Austria and Bulgaria. VIENNA, October 9. A majority of the Vienna papers warn Servia not to play with fire. Austria, they fay, is determined to maintain the stand she has taken, and bervia might lose everything., even her independence. SERVIAN RESERVISTS JOINING COLOURS. BELGRADE, October 9. Servian reservists are to join the colours on Sunday. Servian troops are guarding the roads and the bridges to prevent ihe irregular Servian bands from entering Bosnia and precipitating trouble. AN EXPLANATION DEMANDED. Received October 11, 4.15 p.m. VIENNA, October 10. Austria has demanded an explanation for Servia's action in summoning the reserves to join the colours. Baron von Aerenthal when informing the Powers of this demand intimated the determination ot his Government to protect its frontier, and also the frontier of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Servian threats. The signatory Powers to the Berlin Treaty have therefore made energetic representation to the Servian Government. AUSTRO-HUN-'iARIAN LEGATION ATTACKED. Received October 11, 4.15 p.m. VIENNA, October 10. The people who took part in tbe anti-Austrian demonstration at Ceitirjje smashed the windows of the Austro-Huugarian Legation. Servia and Bulgaria have resumed mutual diplomatic relations.

BRITAIN'S INVALUABLE SYMPATHY. ' TURKfSH AMBASSADOR INTERVIEWED. Received October 11, 4.15 r.m. LONDON, OtoberlO. The Turkish Ambassador in Br tain, interviewed, declared that only Britain's invaluable sympathy restrained some sections of the Turkish people from adopting extreme measures. It was Trukey who first suggested the conference of Powers. She intends to discuss solely the question of Bulgarian ii/dependence and the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. WATCHING EVENTS.

MOVEMENTS OF BRITISH WARSHIPS. Received October 10, 4.15 p.m. MALTA, October 9. The battleships Glory (12,950 tons), and Prince of Wales (15,000 tons), and the cruisers Diana and Lancaster, have left Malta for the Aegean Sea to watch events. t'rince Louis of Battenberg is aboard the battleship Prince of Wales, and commands the squadron. The squadron includes the battleship Canopus, the cruisers Suffolk and Minerva, the destroyers Angler and Banshee. "The Times" says the departure of the squadron is corollary to the speeches of the Hon. H. H. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey, and is a mark of sympathy to Turkey in her severe trial. The "Telegraph" declares that it is intended by a fitting demonstration to prevent any further disintegrating tendency in the Ottaman Empire. REMARKS BY THE EMPEROR. /VIENNA, October 9. The Emperor Francis Josef, in opening the sitting of the Delegations at Buda Pest, declared that the withdrawal of Austrian troops from Novibazar was incontrovertible proof that Austria aimed at no territorial expansion beyond her present possessions, for the ties of the last thirty years had rendered Austria's possession of Bosnia and Herzegovina indissoluble. Baron Aerenthal, Austrian Foreign Minister, affirmed that the Government was in agreement with Germany, Italy and Russia.

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE DEPRESSED. Received October 11, 4.15 p.m. LONDON, October 10. The London Stock Exchange is greatly depressed. Consols fell to 83J, but recovered to 841. There is a fiee selling of all classes of stocks. ANXIETY IN PARIS. Received October 11, 4.30 p.m. PARIS, October 10. Great anxiety was exhibited in Paris on Friday owing to the strained relations of Austria and Servia. The only encouraging item was Greece's hesitation to respond forthwith to the Cretans' demand for a union, Greece preferring to submit the wishes through the proper channels. It is semiofficially asserted in Paris that Britain, France and Russia have assured the Porte that they consider any modifications of the Treaty of Berlin will require the assent of all the contracting Powers. Italy concurs in matters of principle.

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A STEAMER STOPPED. Received October 11, 4.15 p.m. CONSTANTINOPLE, October 10. The forts in the Bosphorus yesterday fired a blank cartridge and stopped a Bulgarian steamer flying the Bulgarian Royal flag. SERVIA'S PROTEST NOT ENTERTAINED BY AUSTRIA. Received October 11, 4.30 p.m. LONDON, October 10. Ihe "Telegraph" says that the Austrian Danube guardships are anchored near Belgrade. This, with the Servian Minister of War's report as to the unpreparedness of the army for war, has had a quietening effect on the nation. The Servian protest against the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not been accepted at Vienna on the ground that Servia is not a signatory Power, and is not entitled to intervene. BRITAIN ADVISED TO KEEP CALM. NOTHING SERIOUS WILL HAPPEN. MR WINSTON CHURCHILL'S OPINION. Received October 11, 4.30 p.m. LONDON, October 10. Mr Winston Cfturchill, President of the Board of Trade, speaking at Dundee, advised the nation to keep calm over Balkan developments, as nothing very serious would happen. Events, he said, showed the danger of trusting to treaties, and the smooth phrases of diplomacy. It was indispensable that Britain should rely on a powerful navy, maintained at the highest state ©f efficiency and strength. Sir Edward Grey has intimated that Britain declines to recognise any change in Crete without the consent of the protecting Powers.

A STRIKING ARTICLE. PREVENTION OF WAR. BRITAIN. FRANCE AND RUSSIA ADVISED TO COMBINE. ST. PETERSBURG, October 9. The paper "Novoe Vremya," in the course of a striking article, urges Russia to join with France arid Britain in adopting a thoroughly disinterested attitude regarding the Balkan question, otherwise, it says, it forsees that the claims for compensation now being advanced in many quarters will lead to the dismemberment of Turkey and to a European war. A writer in the "National Review" assorts that though it is the hand of Austria that ia obtaining control of the Balkan provinces, the voice dictating this policy is Germany's. "A more entangled political skein," he says, "it would be hard to imagine. All the difficulties now experienced would, 'it is felt, be deftly removed if Austra, in the first instance—and that would mean Germany in the second—could obtain economic preponderance in Macedonia without encountering opposition in the rest of Europe. If this were accomplished, the question of poilitcal preponderance, which at present Germany, Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, and in the highest degree Turkey, would be happily postponed until such time as Germany 'is ready to unsheathe her sword and <iut the Gordian knot after the manner of the Macedonian of old world renown. In the far resonant changes that are coming over Europe in the near future the most momentous factors will be the issues of the political struggle between -Germany and Great Britain and of the racial! struggle between the Slav and the Teuton. If Germany scores a victory in each case, the fate of Europe wil have been decided for a long time to come, and Briton's role will be that of a satellite. In the Fatherland every measure cf precaution, every means leading to success is being carefully adopted in advance, nothing

being left to chance One ot the means employed is the putting forward of Austria to pull the chestnuts out of the fire and hand them to her ally. Austra is at once a German and a Slav Power, and with a Slav population she purses a philoGerman policy. Hence she is deputed to lead the southern Slavs in the interests of the German race; and as this game cannot be played too openly to-day, i* is being done in a roundabout way. Austria obtains economic control of all the southern Slav States, and economic possession is nine-tenths of political sway. To acquire the other tenth for the Habsburgs, backed by the Hohenzollerns, will be mere child's play. Hence the sudden inauguration of Austria's railway policy in the Balkans, hence, too, her tentative moves—tentative and timorous—in the direction of a policy of economic privilege. That the keynote of Austria's present Balkan policy is the acquisition of economic advantages can be gainsaid by no veracious observer. What else was the origin of the long and bitter struggle between Austria and Servia respecting the placing of orders for heavy guns? What else actuated the advisers of Francis .Tosef to veto the Serbo-Bulgarian entente? And what other wedge has split the European coalition that would have won for the peaple of Macedonia the elementary rights of man?"

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