Yesterday, Great Powers 



Nothing I 



To-Dav, 



THE NEW EUROPE AND THE BALKAN 



LEAGUE. 



" No one, In view of the results of the war up to date, will be disposed to dispute the right 

 of the Balkan States to formulate the terms on which they will be disposed to conclude peace, 

 and I do not think the Great Powers have been, or will be, more slow than any other people to 

 adjust their own views to the march of events." — Sir Edward Grey. 



The menace of war in the Balkans found the 

 Great Powers of Europe impotent and absolutely 

 unable to take any preventive measures, either 

 singly or in groups. There was never the 

 remotest chance of anything approaching unani- 

 mity, or what has come to be known as the 

 Concert of Europe. The war itself, with its 

 demonstration of the positive striking power of 

 the small States composing the Balkan League, 

 has destroyed not only the prestige of the 

 Powers who did not prevent war, but has de- 

 prived them finally of any right to their proud 

 claim to be called Great Powers. They may 

 flatter themselves that they remain Great 

 Powers, but In reality they are only so in name, 

 and that but for a brief period, for Great 

 Powers must be those which do greatly or 

 possess the possibility of great doings, and not 

 those which have no greater claim to greatness 

 than the possession of an ever-present great and 

 ever-greater fear. 



No such interesting or tragically amusing 

 page of history will be read by future students 

 than that which shows the former Great Powers 

 of Europe paralysed before the success of the 

 Balkan League, as much as any rabbit before the 

 menacing serpent. Where formerly there was 

 loose, even boastful, talk of guaranteeing the 

 maintenance of the status quo, and presumptu- 

 ous, although unthinking, declarations of the 

 limitating areas of conflict, to-day there Is not a 

 single Power which dreams, or dare dream, 

 eithe'r of intervention or even of friendly counsel, 

 which might be Interpreted by the Balkan 

 League as unfriendly. A new Power has arisen 

 in Europe. The proportions of Europe as we 



have known them for many years have com- 

 pletely changed. There has been no greater fall 

 from omnipotence since Lucifer fell from heaven 

 to hell, for it Is no exaggeration to say that 

 to-day those responsible for the government of 

 the Great Powers have passed from the heaven 

 of complacent belief in their ability to direct 

 and control the destinies of the lesser States, 

 through the purgatory of uncertainty as to 

 whether they would be forced into war by cir- 

 cumstances, to the final and abiding hell of 

 knowledge of inability to alter, save perhaps 

 in the most insignificant detail, the march of 

 events. 



The Balkan War, with its subsequent parti- 

 tion of Turkey, Irrespective of the Powers and 

 their covert or open aspirations, will do much to 

 advance the cause of peace and friendliness be- 

 tween Great Britain and Germany. The latter 

 through no action of the British Government, 

 and certainly owing to no active merit of Sir 

 Edward Grey, finds herself practically isolated 

 in Europe. In three short weeks she sees her 

 brilliant. If difficult, dream of expansion towards 

 Asia Minor, with its attendant participation in 

 the control of the Mediterranean, denied to her. 

 . Boldly athwart her path of ambition lies the 

 barrier of the Balkan League. This barrier of 

 superb defensive power and of unknown, but 

 dreaded, possibilities of offence is composed of 

 races of Slav and not Germanic origin. As 

 children these peoples have grown up hating and 

 fearing their nearest Germanic neighbour, 

 Austria, and looking ever towards their distant 

 Slav protector, Russia. The time has now 

 passed when the Balkan League need look to 



