THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1908. THE CRISIS IN THE BALKANS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3069, 14 December 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1908. THE CRISIS IN THE BALKANS

The situation in the Balkans is reported by to-day's cables to have improved. The intricacies of this engrossingly interesting and important trouble are not perhaps as clearly discernible to the average reader as may be desired, and papers by the latest English mails give a clear and concise review of the position The crux of the crisis is that the aged Emperor of Austria has besmirched his old age by a perfidy unequalled in modern times. He has torn the Berlin Treaty into tatters and thrown it in the face of an astonished Europe. He has belied his own signature to the treaty, he has been fa'.se 'to la second private treaty with Turkey, and he has backed up Bulgaria to partake of his own evil-doing. The issue is a direct one:—ls there feuch a thing as international ttiorality? Can a nation with impunity ; do dishonourable deeds for wft'ifcfr the 'individual would be punished? ' Can : the signatories of a treaty s »be i lie c tHe'ir feig-

nacres without the consent of their There are two distinct offences, but the circumstances which led to both run together. 1. There is tne virtual annexation by Austria of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2. There is the declaration of independence by Bulgaria. Austria, by virtue of treaties signed by the Powers of Europe, had the ancient provinces of Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, under her protection, she was under solemn treaty obligations with Turkey never to sev-ar them from Turkey, but her action to the contrary, says the "Telegraph," means that "Austria's intention is to assure and regularise her position in the two provinces which she has administered with such brilliant success, ard to prevent their possible reversion to Turkey, whatever may he the future of the Ottoman Empire under the new regime. She means their destiny to be Austrian, not Turkish. They have for thirty years b<?en administered by Austria, with the <son3enfc of Turkey arid the Powers, but always nominally and theoretically they have remained Turkish territory. AU§tria, in fact, pledged herself that her administration should not derogate from Turkish rights. "The stilted arid hollow phraseology, by which the Imperial Rescript seeks to disguise the real nature of the naked violation of law and right which he is committing, cannot for a moment conceal the essential immorality of the act that he has sanctioned," declares the "Times. "We extend the rights of our'suzerainty," he declares, "to Bosnia and the Herzegovina." That is the pith of the Rescript. The rest is verbiage that is neither dignified nor sincere. It embodies two pretexts this arbitrary attempt to set aside, on the mere notion of a single signatory to an international convention, one of its essential provisions. The first is that Austria-Hungary promised the Inhabitants of the two provinces good administration, and that she has given it to them. That is not denied, though this administration has been, and is, disliked by "the great majority of those who live under it. deduces from these propositions the conclusion that >the moment has come for the Emper-or-King to confer upon them a new proof of his trust in their political maturity. That may be, as between the monarch snl the populations, hat it does not excuse his proposal to confer this boon upon them at the expense of a frienily Power, with which he is at peace, and whose rights In these provinces he is explicitly pledged to preserve. The secor.d pretext is even more shameless than the fir3t. The EmperorKing defends his appropriation of Turkish territory in violation of his word to Turkey and of his engagements to Europe on the plea that ties formerly existed between "ftis glorious ancestors and these lands/ If memories of that kind are to avail in the mouth of the Hansburgs as <valld excuses for the contemptuous disregard of recent and solemn obligations. a great many rights would be exposed to aggression. The second of these deeds ot perfidy is that Bulgaria ha 3 proclaimed itselt an independent kingdom —free from the control of the Turks. "The act is, of course, absolutely lawless from every possible point of view, and an audacious violation of the Treaty of Berlin," writes "The Times" ."Wa in this country have always acted as the sincere friends of Bulgaria, and we have proved our friendship by our attitude at times when others were but little disposed to show consideration or indulgence for her claims. We do not at this moment condemn her aspirations to independence as unnatural or unreasonable in themselves, though we see very plainly the hollowness of the pretexts by which her official spokesmen, and those under their influence, are seeking to excuse her present action, But the Bulgarian Government, while pay'nr lip service, have by |heir acts done their bsst to mak? i':s iealisatloii iri th<3 ilailir fdlure hopeless. They have gona out of theii 1 way to pick a quarrel with On a series of flimsy Mne of which will bear examination. No explanations or assurances will convince th:- world that they had not made up their minds to assert their independence the moment that the reform movement threatened to restore new vitality and strength to the Ottoman Empire."