Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



THE CLASH OF THE NATIONS. 



THE SITUATION IN 

 MONTENEGRO. 



Early in September M. Charles Loiseau 

 visited Montenegro and contributed a number of 

 letters on the situation in that country to the 

 Revue de Paris. They appear in the mid- 

 October issue. 



THE FRONTIER QUESTION. 



From Antivari be writes of the Berlin Con- 

 g-ress and the delimitation of the Montenegrin 

 frontier, and points out how unsatisfactory has 

 been the line of demarcation. The Government 

 at Cettinje has endeavoured to remedy the matter 

 by demanding- a more precise demarcation, and, 

 above all, an intelligent rectification of the 

 frontier line ; but from the Porte it has got 

 nothing but mixed Commissions in 1880, 1908 

 and 1911, which have had no result. Another 

 Commission, composed of officers and oflficials, 

 met this year on the frontier for the first time 

 and submitted to the Governments concerned 

 certain resolutions. The Montenegrin Govern- 

 ment was ready to ratify the new delimitation, 

 but Constantinople delayed, pleading want of 

 time, becaiise there were in Turkey more urgent 

 reforms to be realised. 



THE MALISSORI. 



At Vir-Bazar the question is that of Albania 

 and the Malissori, the inconvenient neighbours 

 of Montenegro, who cross the frontier in thou- 

 sands. Formerly Montenegro was called upon 

 to close her frontier to rebel subjects ; now the 

 Malissori have enumerated in twelve articles the 

 conditions of their repatriation. To their 

 " national " demands Turkey has replied in 

 twelve corresponding articles, granting every- 

 thing, and that all the more loyally because not 

 disposed or in a position to fulfil the majority of 

 the promises. The demands and the reply 

 resemble nothing so much as an exchange of 

 protocols. The reconciliation having been 

 brought about by the good offices of the Govern- 

 ment of Montenegro, there remains to be assured 

 the return of the Malissori to their mountains. 



Cettinje is described as a city having the 

 aspect more of a Western than of an Eastern 

 capital. With its nine Legations, modest 

 palaces, soldiers in khaki, etc., its national 

 character has easily adapted itself to a European 

 appearance. It is a sort of asylum for the 

 Malissori and refugees from the Sandjak of 



Novi-Bazar, Old Servia, and Macedonia. A 

 number of them have told the writer terrible 

 stories of Turkish massacres and cruelty which 

 they have witnessed. 



VIEWS OF A DIPLOMATIST. 



The writer had a conversation with a passing 

 diplomatist at Niksitch, who told him he was in 

 a country which humbly flatters Russia, 

 manages Italy, conspires with Austria, and at 

 bottom keeps up the agitation. For some time, 

 he continued, diplomatists have been saying that 

 if the small neighbours of the Ottoman Empire 

 did not meddle, more or less with the connivance 

 of certain Powers, with the internal affairs of 

 Turkey, peace would be more assured. He re- 

 ferred to a secret treaty between Austria and 

 Montenegro signed in 1908, which in case of a 

 successful war promised the latter State an 

 appreciable slice of Albania, provided, of course, 

 that Montenegro loyally seconded the views of 

 her powerful neighbours. Yet he did not be- 

 lieve in the treaty, and its authenticity was 

 denied at Vienna, but there was probably some- 

 thing in it, he said. The Malissori are con- 

 tinually revolting, he added, and the Servians 

 of the Sandjak are beginning to resist the bashi- 

 bazouks ; so some one must be supplying them 

 with arms. One cannot help suspecting they 

 are the instruments of some intrigue. Who 

 knows what is being prepared? Montenegro is 

 ambitious, Austria more so. 



THE PIVOT OF AUSTRIAN POLICY. 



In reply, the writer pointed out that if Monte- 

 negro had felt it her duty to join hands with 

 Austria there would have been no need of secret 

 treaties. Since the Treaty of Berlin Montenegro 

 has had time to show whether her policy was 

 agreeable or not to the ambitions of Austria. 

 But the temptation was admissible. Austria is 

 at hand, Russia far away. Russia is the bene- 

 factor, but limits her benefits to moral patronage 

 and subsidies. Austria, the immediate neigh- 

 bour, holds the keys of the customs, commerce, 

 routes, and the economic life of the country. 

 Russia represents the past tradition : Slav 

 idealism, religious prestige, almost anachron- 

 ism. Austria represents the present : material 

 collaboration, industrial contact. Russia was 

 not able to prevent the Austrian annexation of 

 Bosnia. Russia spent her forces in the war in 

 the Far East ; the pele of Austro-Hungarian 

 policy is the Balkan Peninsula. 



