The Rev 



EDITED BY 



MARCH, 1913. 



EVIEWS 



HENRY STEAD. 



THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD. 



The Balkan Situation. 



Since the notes o)i the war were 

 penned in London for our last issue, 

 close on three months have elapsed. 

 Instead of peace, which the armistice 

 of Chatalja foreshadowed, and which 

 it was thought had been practically 

 arranged between the opposing Com- 

 manders-in-Chief, the guns aie again 

 thundering m Thrace and Albania. 

 Adrianople, ringed with steel, still 

 holds out desperatel}', despite the ram 

 of shot and shell from the siege guns 

 of the Allies, but famine must ere long 

 compel a surrender. Scutari, with its 

 powerful forts manned b}' the best of 

 the Sultan's troops, defies all the at- 

 tempts of the Montenegrins, assisted 

 though they now are by Servian men 

 and guns. Fierce fighting is taking 

 place on the Peninsula of Gallipoh 

 wiiich, rather than the Chatalja lines, 

 is the key to Constantinople. But since 

 the war re-commenced, neither side can 

 claimmuchadvantage, though the Turks 

 are again showing their extraordinary 

 ability for defence so tragically demon- 

 strated behind the hastily made earth- 

 works at Plevna in 1878. 



The Peace Plenipotentiaries. 



The events which have led up to 

 the present situation are briefly as fol- 

 lows : — On December 3rd an armistice 

 was signed b}' Turkey and all the Allies 

 e.xcept Greece. It arranged for a Con- 

 ference to discuss the terms of peace, 

 and selected London as the most suit- 

 able place of meeting. So to the capi- 

 tal of the British Empire the peace 

 plenipotentiaries journeyed, and met 

 for the first time on December i6th at 

 St. James' Palace, in rooms which had 

 been lent them for the purpose b\' King 

 George. Mustafa Reshid Pasha was 

 Turkey's chief delegate. A distin- 

 guished diplomatist, who had been 

 ambassador in Rome and then in 

 Vienna, and who had already had ex- 

 perience of Peace Conferences, having 

 been one of Turkey's representatives 

 at Ouchy, where peace with Ital}' was 

 concluded. Bulgaria sent Dr. Daneff, 

 her greatest diplomatist, a man of tre- 

 mendous force of character, who, with 

 M. Venezelos, is responsible for the 

 creation of the Balkan League, an alli- 

 ance which until a few months ago was 

 beyond the wildest dreams of the most 



