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REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



April 1, 1913. 



made weaker by the war, and because 

 she has been weakened Russia stands 

 behind a Servian State question and is 

 trying to restore the old national Slav 

 flag to the changed Balkans. 



AUSTRIA A BALKAN STATE. 

 At the Berlin Congress Austria re- 

 ceived a mandate for the occupation of 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina. So long as 

 there was only occupation, Austria was 

 not a Balkan State, having no posses- 

 sion in the Balkans. Then came the 

 annexation, and thereby Austria ac- 

 quired the same rights over the fate of 

 the whole Balkan Peninsula as any 

 other Balkan State. Too little account 

 is taken of this fact, and perhaps also 

 it is too little emphasised by Austrian 

 diplomacy. If, therefore, the Balkan 

 League stands for the principle of inde- 

 pendence, the voice of Austria must also 

 be respected. The four Balkan Allies 

 do not represent the whole Peninsula. 

 Austria is entitled to a seat and a voice 

 in the Balkan Confederation, and the 

 conflict between Austria and Servia 

 should be settled by the two States 

 themselves. 



A nation's sacrifice. 

 Mr. J. H. Whitehouse, M.P., in the 

 TSImeteenth Century and After, writes 

 on the revelation of nationality which 

 has been made by Bulgaria and Servia 

 in the war. He says Sofia to-day pre- 

 sents a spectacle of an entirely united 

 people, filling the observer with joy and 

 pride, and yet with great liumility. 

 Sofia to-day is the most wonderful of 

 all pageants, a nation in sacrifice. To 

 prevent private grief interfering with 

 the discharge of public duty, the Bul- 

 garian Government have prohibited the 

 publication of the names of the men 

 who are wounded or killed. Mr. White- 

 house was much impressed with the soul 

 of the nation, its bravery and its forti- 

 tude, also the singular nobility of spirit 

 shown in the attitude towards the Turk. 

 There was no note of exultation, but 

 gentleness and humility. In some re- 

 spects, he adds, the present position 

 achieved by Servia is even more wonder- 

 ful than that of Bulgaria, because 

 Servia has not only had to liberate her- 

 self from the Turk, but has had to con- 



solidate her nation and build up its 

 economic welfare with a hostile nation 

 on her northern frontier. 



THE DARDANELLES PROBLEM. 



The end of the Balkan War will not 

 put an end to the Eastern Question, 

 writes M. Ernest Lemonon in the 

 Grande Revue, though the elements of 

 the problem may be modified owing to 

 the defeat of Turkey. 



THE VARIOUS TREATIES. 

 The writer deals in particular with 

 the Dardanelles as the complement of 

 the Eastern Question, and one which 

 will necessarily occupy the attention of 

 Europe. There may have been good 

 reasons for the stipulation closing the 

 Straits in 1841, but there are certainly 

 none to-day, he says. He gives an out- 

 line of the various measures adopted in 

 regard to the Straits from time to time, 

 noting especially those taken against 

 Russia in 1856, and borne by her till 

 1870, when she broke down the door 

 behind which she had been imprisoned. 

 The Conference of London then sanc- 

 tioned her action, but in Article 2 gave 

 the Sultan certain power " to open the 

 Straits in times of peace to the ships 

 of friendly and allied Powers when the 

 Sublime Porte judged it necessary, in 

 order to assure the stipulations of the 

 Treaty of Paris of 1856." This obscure 

 article, in its turn, gave rise to difficulties 

 of interpretation at the Berlin Congress 

 in 1878. Great Britain's reading was 

 that the exceptional power to open the 

 Straits depended on the will of the 

 Sultan alone ; Russia, on the other 

 hand, made it an international question. 

 According to M. Lemonon, it was the 

 Russian interpretation which was the 

 more logical, but the British interpreta- 

 tion was the one adopted and main- 

 tained ever since, and, curiously enough, 

 accepted by Russia herself. In 1902 

 and in 1904, when she had occasion to 

 require the opening of the Straits, 

 Russia applied to the Sultan alone for 

 the necessary authority. The Sultan 

 gave permission and no one protested — 

 except England, who had apparently 

 forgotten her previous interpretation of 

 Article 2. 



