THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 23 May 1913, Page 6

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

(By T. Jordan, M.A. L.L.8.)

[Continued.]

Owiiijj; t:> economic causes, the Slavs, who increase more rapidly than Liu- Gc-r\n;M;«, tend to move westward aiid l:ir«j{{! -.ruavbers of them settled in tliv>. uu: ns and manufacturing districts, it might havj. beeu expected they would then cease to 41 a & their. own language and become Germanised. On t/lie contrary, tins movement or population, was spreading tneir lan-gu-age, i'-nd they claimed special schools, and men of diir own nationality to be appointed, to Government offices to deal with their business.. But the growth of the Slavonic races was, not the result of mere government assistance. It was to be seen in the census returns and ii the election results. The birtlimt-'' among the countries of Europe, and indeed of the world so far' as returns are- available, is headed by the Slav races,- Russia, Bulgaria, Roumai:>ia, and Servia- in mat order. The annual rate per 1000 in Russia is now well over 40, whereas that in Germany is under 30. For purposes of comparison it is interesting to remember ' that the English rate is a Ijttle over 24, and our own a little over 26.

The greater increase of the Slavs, and the greater migration from country to towns, was partly the resuit of -«e nationalist .movement, which had ripen ah out 1830, and was pa.rtly the result of the establishment of popular education and parliamentary government at —*e same time. As soon.: a,s these races, wliich .had so long been ruled by the Germans, secured political liberty and the means of education 'they naturally used both to reassert u*eir national individuality. The contest was now avowedly racial and the defence o'f German nationality was put in the fore front .of their programme. .A party of Young Germans did not scruple to declare that the Austrian-Germans looked forward no union with the German Empire. Bismarck was their hero, the of Sedan was their national festival, and approximation to Germany was. dearer to them than the maintenance of Austria. .They were in fact a "branch of the Pan Germanic Union of Germany. The concessions. tnat the Slavs gained were wrung from the -Germans only -bv the - most dogged pertinacity, andit was only in 1897 that the language ordinances were passed, the direct result of which was the introduction' of Slavonic into government offices throughout the whole of the |fcingdom> Theropposition to these ordinano?s;:; was .; so bitter that they became law only through the personal intervention of the present Emperor: This was accompanied by a change *m-the electoral, franchise whereby. Germans were obliged to vote for Germans only, and Slavs for Slavs! But the chief feature of the allotment was :ne formal overthrow of the* fiction that Austria was preponderatingly a German country and riot a country preponderaiingly Slav, with a Germam dynasty, and a German, facade. . A .direct result has been the lessening of racial animosity. • are now m_ a position, to approach 1 what we may:call the modern phase of the Balkan question. Perliaps there is one other fact to bear in mind with regarol to Austria's attitude; In 1848 Humgary, that is, the Magyars, was at war with Austria, that is .the Germans/rand had her at hot feet almost when Russia stepped wrenched the victory from' her and,crushed Hungary. For this the tfcuns have hated Russia, and iiot a little of Austria's policy has been dictated 'by this /hatred, as it served to ohite lihe and the Magyar elerheriits hy means of the only bond that was likely to unite them—-fear of a oommoh. enemy. . The first attempt made by the Sebs to recover their lost position was made hi 1876. Encouraged' by"Russian Pan rSlavists Servia declared war on Turkey ami ■was joined by Montenegro. The Turks were, however, too -strong for them. The following year Russiajenr terefi the lists and the result Jwas

the crippling of Turkey in the war : of 1877.'. The war was olos«3' by: the treaty ;or San Stefano. Prior to |ahis in 1875 there had ibecn an insurrection of Slavs in Bosnia against the Turk's, and tremeudious ekcitement wast aroused in, the whole of, the Peninsula. :■[ Bulgars and Turks fllew to arms, and there was (fearful slaughter of Bulgara. ; It was theja_'.', that the eloquent denunciation of ttfe-Tiirks by Gladstone;; roused -the Whole ! of. Europ"e7,' wasvreally to avenge tie ibrpthera, the Bulgars, that Russia vldeplared war,,;' ■By the treaty of to iset' tip a great Bulgarian, stato;! It flealisecf almost to«the full the national aspirations of the Bulgars, an l erected all the provinces, of European Tiifkey in which the Bulgar element predominated, > into an autonomous' 'principality which extended from the Black Sea to 1 the Albanian Mountains, ironi the Danube to ■ the Aeg; ean iSeai and possessing a Mediter-

ranean port at Kavala. Thjs meant! three-fifths of the area of the Balkans and a population (then) of 4,000,000. She also _ stipulated for torn'lory tliat would' have brought Montenegro kito close contiguity with Servia, thus facilitating the eventual union of the Southern Slavs, and f'i;sing the path of Austria towards J- .•))-. onika and tho Aegean. Now the caidinal principle of Austrian policy was, and stil! seems to be, mot to a'.lo.v erection of new Slavonic States on its ; southern frontier. Henci- the treaty caused cTisternaf.on in Austria', and tli3 «-rt;ci;ii view of the. situation is summed up in the' wr'rds of the great Hudp;i ; ai Kcssvth. In 1877 he said, A> 't*-d ■ay the Owir the term Scla-cause, meant Russian rule up to the Adriatic, the subjugation of Hungary" to the Solave, the shutting up cf <»ermany in an iron vise." Au.l Austria succeeded in persuading .h i other Powers that this new state would probably become a Russian chptMidency, and a European conference drew tip the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, by which the provisions of the treaty of San Stefano were radically revised. By its provisions this Big Bulgaria was divided into three, divisions. An independent small Bulgaria was cut out of it; an independent Eastern Eoumeliii was established, and the third portion embracing Macedonia ; and part of Adrianople was. handed ' back to the Turks; Montcmogro was rewarded with a sen-board, but small strip of territory that separated her from Servia, the Sanjak of Noyi Bazaar, was given back to Turkey, though Austria reserved the right to keeping garrisons "there. She was also to occupy and adnii.nistor Bosnia and. Herzegovina. England alone advocated the unnatural division of Bulgaria, in-itsejf a mere, legacy of heartburning and war to,"the spirited race whom such an authority' * as (Lord Strangford then regarded as ' the Oriental power of. the future. A ' small, constant amd restless jealousy of Russia, it is to be feared, alone /actuated the action of England throughout, with the, corresponding i desire to prop up Turkey at all costs,, even at that of taking a share in tho spoils herself. If is a very dark and sad page of English history, this story of peace with honour. (To fee Continued.) > ,