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The Review of Reviews. 



intervene. The military power of the Balkan 

 States has surpassed all expectations, but a still 

 more serious consideration is opinion in Russia 

 which favours the Slavs of the Balkans. Even 

 Germany is opposed to the territorial 

 aggrandisement of Austria in the South. The 

 interests of Austria and Germany in the East 

 have for some time, indeed, not been harmoni- 

 ous, but this is not generally known in the West. 

 Since the Berlin Congress everything has 

 changed. .At that time Germany was nothing in 

 Turkey ; to-day she has won a position at Con- 

 stantinople without the aid of Austria. Her 

 economic interests have become opposed to the 

 commercial interests of Austria, and to give 

 Salonika to Austria would be to favour Austrian 

 commerce and not her own. From the German 

 economic point of view it would be preferable for 

 Salonika to become Greek. 



THE BALKAN LEAGUE. 



If the public is in doubt as to the merits of 

 the present conflict in the East it is not the fault 

 of the scribes. The Contemporary Review con- 

 tributes its share of en'ightenment and gives the 

 place of honour to .Sir Arthur Evans, who some- 

 what anticipates events in his title, " The 

 Drama of the Balkans and its Closing Scenes." 

 Sir Arthur makes the position of the " little 

 nations " quite clear: — 



The Balkan League is not a mere casual alliance for 

 temporary ends. Its foundation was really due to the 

 instinct of self-preservation on the part of the small 

 Balkan States, and its objective carries much further 

 than the conclusion of the present war. The almost 

 unhoped-for co-operation has now been cemented in 

 blood. It is not for nothing that Serbian divisions have 

 fought for their ally under the walls of Adrianople, 

 that Bulgarian and Greek troops have joined forces with 

 the Serbian in Macedonia. That here and there old 

 animosities may have broken out between the allied 

 forces need surprise no one. But the wisdom of the 

 responsible leaders may be trusted to check such local 

 demonstrations. There is an absolute agreement that 

 no member of the Alliance can enter into a separate 

 treaty with any foreign Power. It is a significant fact 

 that when the dispute between Austria-Hungary and 

 Serbia was at its height the direct negotiations were 

 entrusted to the Bulgarian Premier. That is the very 

 point of the alliance of which Austria-Hungary will 

 have to take count in her demands. She has no longer 

 to deal alone with little Serbia. The very fact, how- 

 ever, that Bulgaria is acting as her partner, must greatly 

 facilitate a reasonable compromise. 



DR. DILLON OX BULGARIA. 



Dr. Dillon is as readable as ever in his dis- 

 cursive survey of the situation. D •. Dillon 

 bestows praise and blame with impartial pen 

 and possesses the rare gift of garnishing prose 

 with the quality of poetry, as when he writes of 

 the Bulgarian nation : — 



Latter-day war is not merely the clashing of two brute 

 forces and the repulse of one. It is also a searching 

 of the heart, a probing of the vital forces of the nation, 

 a rough appeal to the principle of the survival of the 

 fittest. The soldiers of the two hostile armies may be 

 equally brave, man for man, and there may be no 

 superiority of numbers on either side. These are but 

 secondary considerations. What really tells are 

 qualities which have produced most of their effects before 

 a single army took the field : a developed social sense, 

 resolute will power, capacity for sustained collective 

 effort in the nation, and for thrift, toil, sacrihce, and 

 self-denial in the individual The most inveterate war- 

 hater cannot contemplate the stirring spectacle of that 

 little nation, making its supreme effort, running deadly 

 risks, tackling a seemingly impossible task with the self- 

 assurance that hurls Pelion upon Ossa and both into 

 the sea, without feeling a thrill of unalloyed admira- 

 tion. That human warfare should have the effect of 

 thus bracing listless, indolent men to such heroic con- 

 quests over themselves and their baser passions is doubt- 

 less the one redeeming feature that still saves it from 

 abolition. 



Austria's acquiescence and Russia's self- 

 control meet with Dr. Dillon's hearty approval, 

 and it is quite evident that at least one who 

 should know looks forward to a peaceful issue 

 from our present troubles, 



" A NEW ERA." 



Mr. Edward Foord also joins the company of 

 those who prophesy soothly in his sketch, " The 

 Past and Present in the Near East." He only 

 errs on the pardonable side of brevity, and joins 

 the general chorus in speeding the parting Turk 

 when he says : — 



The thunder of the allied guns on many fields of 

 victory, from Skodra to Tchorlu, from Olympus to 

 Haemus, heralds the dawn of a new era of civilisation 

 and progress in the Nearer East. 



AUSTRIA ALSO A BALKAN POWER. 



Mr. R. W. Seton-Watson puts in a special 

 plea for the inclusion of " Austria-Hungary as 

 a Balkan Power." The writer does not ignore 

 the welter of Austro-Hungarian home affairs, 

 for there are two sides to the fact that Austria 

 is a great Slav nation ; indeed, this may be her 

 undoing, for her action in the past will not be 

 very readily forgotten. After all, Austria's 

 troubles are within her own border, as Mr. 

 Seton-Watson admits : — 



For some years past her politicians have played with 

 the catchword of Trialism — a word which is loosely em- 

 ployed to describe various schemes for uniting all the 

 Southern Slav provinces of the Monarchy as a single 

 unit under Habsburg rule. This is not the place to 

 indicate the method by which this unity might be recon- 

 ciled with a modified scheme of Centralist government 

 such as would replace the effete Dual system. But that 

 the task must be attempted, and that without delay, is 

 recognised on all sides ; for it would be madness to 

 continue a system which directly challenges its victims 

 to compare their own misgovernment with the triumphs 

 of their free kinsmen across the frontier. From this 

 to revolution is but a step. 



