Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



659 



ATROCITIES— WHOSE FAULT ? 



Mr. Marmaduke Pickthall, in the ATme- 

 ieenth Century, appears as a thoroughgoing- 

 advocate of the Turk. Never, he says, in the 

 history of Islam have subject Christians suffered 

 persecution for their faith. The atrocities which 

 have shocked the world from time to time in the 

 last century were due to foreign interference of 

 a particularly intimate and galling character. 

 The Christians being almost everywhere pam- 

 pered, the Mohammedans neglected and down- 

 trodden, the Moslem worm turned at last in 

 massacre and outrage ! He thinks it " a great 

 misfortune for the British Empire that a Moslem 

 Power, the Khalifate, should be put down for 

 the mere wish to practise what we have for years 

 been preaching — a nationality that shall be inde- 

 pendent of religious differences. For it comes 

 to that. In the four years since religious tolera- 

 tion was proclaimed in Turkey, Turkey has had 

 a number of assailants, no defender." He fears 

 that in any settlement arranged by Christian 

 Europe the claims of the Mohammedan may be 

 ignored, and he deeply regrets that England, 

 with her millions of Mohammedans, has no 

 settled Moslem policy. 



Europe has a right to interfere in the Balkan 

 affairs. For Europe saved Servia from the result 

 of her war with Turkey in 1876, and again after 

 her defeat by Bulgaria at Slicnitza ; Europe 

 saved Greece after her crushing defeat by Tur- 

 key in 1897. 



WHERE EUROPE COMES IN. 



" The Balkan Crisis in a Nutshell " is pre- 

 sented by Mr. J W. Ozanne in the Nineteenth 

 Century. He says " it was through the dissen- 

 sions of Greeks, Slavs, and of Bulgarians, who 

 are of the ITgrian race, and therefore quite dis- 

 tinct, that the Ottomans were enabled to estab- 

 lish thei'- empire in the Balkan Peninsula. It 

 was owing to their rivalry that it was main- 

 tained." Now these rivals have united, and the 

 Turkish Empire has collapsed. Against the 

 common opinion, Mr. Ozanne declares that 



ARBITRATION VERSUS WAR. 



A VERY thoughtful article in the Round Table 

 for December on arbitration and war refers to 

 the view taken by President Taft and American 

 public opinion, that the question of Panama tolls 

 and the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty should not be 

 submitted to the Hague Tribunal, and says, " If 

 this is the view taken by the nation which prides 

 itself on being the leading advocate of universal 

 arbitration, in a case which simply involves the 

 interpretation of a treaty," we cannot be sur- 

 prised that arbitration was not invoked in the 

 Balkan War. The writer says : " So long as 

 national patriotism takes precedence in men's 

 hearts over the love of humanity, as it does and 

 will for many a long day, so long will war re- 

 main as the final judge between the nations." 

 The writer thus sums up the whole matter : — 



Arbitration is no cure for war so long as there is no 

 agreement between nations to substitute arbitration for 

 war, and no power strong enough to enforce such an 

 agreement if mude. So long as the world is divided 

 into peoples as passionately attached to their national 

 individuality and independence as thev are to-day, no 

 such agreement can be made and no such power can be 

 established. Meanwhile the nations 'are in the position 

 of the strong man armed keeping his palace. When a 

 stronger than he shall come he shall divide his spoils. 

 The only security for a nation's peace is its own strength 

 for self-defence; and its best guarantee that it will not 

 be attacked is to make the attempt too dangerous for any 

 possible foe to undertake it. For this reason armaments 

 to-day, instead of being a menace to peace, are its best 

 protection. Any nation which, lulled by dreams of the 

 early coming of universal peace, neglects to prepare for 

 possible war is only inviting a stronger neighbour to 

 use its own strength in the day of quarrel. 



Jn ^emorfam. 



The many admirers of the late WILLIAM T, STEAD will be glad to know that 

 Mr, P. Bryant Baker, the well-known sculptor, has completed a verv successful study 

 of the founder of The Review of Reviews. The bust can be seen at the artist's studio 

 at 404, Fulham Road, London, and is a life-like presentment. Mr. Baker has recently 

 executed several commissions for Royalty, the most notable being the bust of King 

 Edward for Marlborough House, a full- sized statue of the late King for Huddersfield 

 (recently unveiled by King George), and yet another for the Westminster County Hall. 



