514 



The Review of Reviews. 



well directed during the past decade.* The 

 financial condition of the country has for some 

 years been so excellent that the balance-sheets 

 show a considerable surplus.! There has been 

 a wonderful growth of intellectual culture ; 

 science, literature, art are all advancing. But 

 more satisfactory than all is the moral state of 

 the country, which was well shown by the war 

 mobilisation, surpassing as it did the expecta- 

 tion of the greatest optimists. Everyone, down 

 to the simple peasant, grasped clearly the idea 

 of the general welfare, and almost without ex- 

 ception each one clearly saw the position of the 

 country and his own duty towards it. No ex- 

 planations were necessary, since everybody 

 seemed to have grown wise and patriotic. 

 Again, the cultivated classes, as well as the 

 masses, know from experience the hardships of 

 fighting the Turk. It was a matter of common 

 knowledge before the outbreak of hostilities that 

 the Turks would oppose a first-class army of 

 260,000 to the Servians and Bulgarians ; and 

 these troops, fanatical and enthusiastic as they 

 were, would, in the eventuality of war, have the 

 advantage of being on the defensive. In addi- 

 tion, Turkey has inexhaustible resources in Asia 

 Minor, whence troops are arriving incessantly. 

 It would therefore be untrue to think that the 

 Balkan States, and Servia in particular, desired 

 war with Turkey at any cost. At the same time, 

 it must be pointed out that the danger of it was 

 ever imminent on account of the frequent skir- 

 mishes on the frontier, the desperate position of 

 our countrymen under Turkish rule, and the 

 many interruptions and delays which hampered 

 Servian exports through Turkey. This will be 

 dealt with in the next section, and now I will 

 set forth the causes which compelled Servia to 

 make war on Turkey. 



WHY SERVIA MADE WAR. 



It had constantly been expected on the Balkan 

 Peninsula that the 23rd Article of the Berlin 

 Treaty, concerning the reforms in the vilayets 

 of European Turkey, would be carried out. The 

 Great Powers signed this Treaty and guaranteed 

 its fulfilment, and there was naturally every con- 

 fidence in their force and humanity. Only during 

 recent Balkan events did the entire European 

 Press show that the European Powers had not 



* English readers may refer to Alfred Stead's book, 

 " Servia and the Servians " (London, igog), for an 

 account of this development. 



t The Servian Minister of Finance made the follow- 

 ing statement with reference to the present war : — 

 " Servia has sufficient capital to carry on the war for 

 six months without contracting debts and without 

 financial difficulties of any kind." 



fulfilled their mission and their duty, and the 

 general opinion was crystalised in the sentence 

 of Paul Leroy-Beaulieu : " Les fameuses grandes 

 puissances, depuis le traite de Berlin de 1878, 

 ont absolument manque k leur mission, pendant 

 une period de 34 ans " (" L'Economiste 

 Fran^ais," 1912, Vol. II. Nr. 42). The Balkan 

 peoples themselves did not remain unaware of 

 the fact that the Great Powers were unable to 

 accomplish their mission, chiefly on account of 

 mutual jealousies and territorial and other aims 

 of their own in Turkey. During thirty years 

 Servia and the other — now allied — Balkan States 

 have been sending countless Notes to Con- 

 stantinople, and they have also frequently ap- 

 proached the Great Powers on the subject. But 

 all these efforts were fruitless. It was impos- 

 sible to remain content with the Mijrsteg pro- 

 gramme of reforms, for, through some evil 

 genius, the region of the greatest anarchy on 

 the Balkan Peninsula — i.e., Old Servia — had not 

 been included therein. But even these insig- 

 nificant reforms were abandoned after the 

 proclamation of the Turkish Constitution. 

 Finally, on the advice of the Great Powers, and 

 by her own wish during the past years, Servia 

 has carried on a Turcophile policy, hoping 

 thereby to improve the condition of the Servians 

 in the Turkish provinces and to secure the 

 Danube-Adriatic railroad, which would also have 

 benefited Turkey. The outrages in Turkey were 

 passed over in silence, and oflficially every step 

 was avoided which was not in the spirit of this 

 policy. Arms and ammunition ordered by 

 Turkey from Germany and Austria were allowed 

 to pass through Servia, even though this created 

 an awkward situation, owing to our sympathies 

 and ties with Italy. "• 



BALKAN STATES XOT EAGER FOR WAR. 



That the Balkan States were not eager for 

 war with Turkey is proved from the fact 

 that they did not avail themselves of the 

 favourable opportunity offered by the Italo- 

 Turkish war, even though the alliance between 

 the Christian Balkan States had already been 

 formed as early as last February. Seeing 

 that the Great Powers were unable to carry out 

 the 23rd Article of the Treaty of Berlin, the 

 Allied Balkan States drew up a minimum pro- 

 gramme of reforms to safeguard the rights as 

 human beings of the Christian populations and 

 to establish the order necessary to economical 

 development. They proposed the formation of 

 a system of local self-government in European 

 Turkey, with certain guarantees for the security 

 of the Christian populations, for any reforms 

 which the Turks themselves might undertake 

 to execute would, as heretofore, be futile or 



