i66 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



April I, 1913. 



RE-ARRANGING EUROPE. 



THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 



In Nouvelle Revue Ragueni gives us 

 the Italian view of the renewal of the 

 Triple Alliance. 



A MARRIAGE OF REASON. 

 Italy, he writes, has been obliged to 

 remain in the Triplice ; it is in the 

 supreme interest of peace that she is 

 forced to remain the ally of Germany 

 and of Austria. It is a marriage of 

 reason and not of love. If in 1882 Italy 

 had had as the head of her Government 

 a man of genius like Cavour, she would 

 never have entered the Triplice, which 

 has never been of any use to her. It 

 has, it is true, given thirty years of 

 peace to Europe, but there is nothing 

 to prove that peace would not have been 

 maintamed even without the Triplice, 

 which has only been profitable to Ger- 

 many and to Austria. To safeguard 

 her Mediterranean interests Italy has 

 been obliged to conclude special agree- 

 ments with France and England, which 

 reduce, if they do not destroy, the value 

 of the Triplice. If it were easy for 

 Italy, by following the policy of friend- 

 ships instead of the less fruitful one 

 of alliances, not to enter into the Bis- 

 marckian combination, it is much less 



Fischefto.] [Turin. 



AUSTRIAN FRIENDSHIP.. 



Though hie chain has been reforged, he is stil 

 the same andmal. 



easy for her to get out of it. At Berlin 

 and Vienna the significance of the re- 

 newal has been greatly exaggerated. 

 The event has been received in Italy 

 and in France with the completest in- 

 difference. It has not modified in any 

 way the balance of Europe. When 

 Italy entered the Alliance she feared, 

 wrongly, the triumph of reaction in 

 France. According to Bismarck, the 

 Alliance was to assure the hegemony of 

 Germany in Europe, but the Franco- 

 Russian Alliance destroyed that. 



THE FEDERATION OF EUROPE. 

 No Alliance has had a longer life 

 than the Triplice, because, like the 

 Franco-Russian Alliance, its character 

 was pacific. But it has never been 

 popular in Italy, especially because of 

 Austria, whose policy in regard to Ser- 

 via, has caused general indignation. 

 The Italian Press and public opinion 

 do not conceal their sympathy with the 

 Balkan peoples, and this seems to irri- 

 tate the clerical party at Vienna. It was 

 wise for Italy to renew the Alliance 

 without modification, and she has there- 

 by rendered a great service to peace. 

 Ragueni hopes the new situation created 

 by recent events in the East, thanks to 

 the progress of democratic and pacifist 

 ideas among all nations, will make fur- 

 ther renewal unnecessary. For, in spite 

 of everything, the Alliance has never 

 ceased to weigh heavily on Franco- 

 Italian relations. He also Welshes that 

 the Triple Alliance and the Triple 

 'Entente will one day form a solid 

 group, which will hasten the realisation 

 of the grand dream of thinkers and 

 philosophers — the federation of the 

 States of Europe. 



EFFECT ON THE BALKANS. 

 M. Ernest Lemonon, writing in Ques- 

 tions Diploinatiqnes et Coloniales, also 

 notes that the renewal of the Alliance 

 was not received with enthusiasm, but 

 rather with a little hostility, in Italy. 

 All the enthusiasm seems to have been 

 centred in Berlin and m Vienna, especi- 

 ally the latter, where the journals have 

 proclaimed warmly the fidelity of Italy 

 to the Alliance. A good many people 



