The Progress of the World. 



235 



rriminal invader who, after five months, has utterly 

 failed to do more than establish 130,000 men upon the 

 seashore, where, so long as they are under the guns 

 of the fleet, they are safe. Italy has decreed the 

 annexation of provinces she has neither conquered 

 nor occupied. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies 

 have ratified the crime. But the Turks have never, and 

 ought never, and. I hope, will never, surrender their 

 African provinces to the Italian aggressor. Italy does 

 not advance into the interior of the provinces she has 

 annexed on paper. To do so General Caneva regards 

 as difficult, dangerous, 'and even suicidal. If the Powers 

 wish to mediate, let them remind Italy of the Treaties 

 of Paris, London, and Berlin, and politely request her 

 to desist from persisting in the attempt to perpetrate 

 a crime against international law and the good faith 

 of nations. To ask us to confirm Ahah's title to 

 -N'aboth's vineyard even before the owner of the vine- 

 yard is dead is an outrage of which I sincerely hope 

 Sir E. Grey will never be guilty. 



The Italians, bitterly chagrined at 



Italy ^^'^ discovery that an expenditure 



Getting Desperate, of £40.000 per day is not buying 



them either peace or territory in 

 Tripoli, are now swearing that they will carry the war 

 into other provinces of the Ottoman Empire. They 

 made a beginning last month by shelling two rotten 

 Turkish tubs-of-war in Beyrout harbour, incidentally 

 killing and wounding many of the non-combatant 

 citizens. It is, I suppose, what Drake would have 

 called a " .singeing of the Sultan's beard." But its 

 only result has been to precipitate the expulsion of 

 Italians from Syria and to unite more firmly than 

 ever all Ottoman subjects in opposition to the 

 Italians. Foiled at Beyrout, the Italians ara talking 

 " mighty biggotty," as Brer Rabbit would say. about 

 rushing the Dardanelles and seizing Constantinople. 

 If they found it impossible with 130,000 Italian soldiers 

 to destroy 10.000 Turks and Arabs in Tripoli, how 

 many Italian soldiers do they think will be necessary 

 to defeat 250,000 Turkish troops in I'.urope and Asia ? 

 The attempt to carry the war into the Sea of .Marmora 

 will justify, .ind indeed compel, the Turks to close the 

 Dardanelles, thereby severing the great artery of 

 commerce between hungry Europe and the Russian 

 granaries in the Black Sea. 



England and Russia, I am glad to 



The rerord, still sfiuid shoulder to 



Persian Trouble, shoulder in confronting the forces 



of anarchy and inidnipetcnce which 

 are rendering trade or travel in Persia almost impos- 



sible. The ex-Shah is still giving trouble. It is usually 

 said by the Russophobes that he was pushed forward 

 by the Russians. In Russia it is just as firmly believed 

 that he was used by Germany to create a diversion in 

 Persia at the identical moment when the Panther was 

 sent to Agadir. As the Persians cannot force him out 

 by arms, the Anglo-Russian allies propose to bribe 

 His Majesty to disappear. If he refused to do so and 

 regained his throne in Teheran, (k-rmany might reward 

 his docility by recognition. We could hardly follow 

 suit. But if we did not we should be interfering with 

 the internal affairs of Persia. 



The insane policy of ahenating the 

 The Russification confidence and provoking the 

 Finland. hostility of the Finns continues to 



be carried out with unrelenting 

 thoroughness by the Russian Government, Last 

 month the Finnish Pilot and Lighthouse Department 

 was definitely .subordinated to the Russian Ministry 

 of Marine. Thereupon over 200 Finnish pilots resigned 

 their posts, and many Finnish ports are left pilotlcss. 

 Now a pilot is one of those men who cannot be impro- 

 vised. To know the intricacies of a channel is a thing 

 that cannot be conferred by a ukase. If the pilots 

 stand firm it will he equivalent to a pacific blockade of 

 Finland. What conceivable gcod can come to Russia 

 by these continuous encroachments on Finni.sh Home 

 Rule I utterly fail to understand. The harm they 

 do is only too palpable. They are arousing the .sus- 

 picion that Russia is moving steadily but stealthily 

 forward towards the annexation of the Norwegian ice- 

 free port which is divided only by eighteen miles from 

 the northern frontier of F'inland. It is monstrous to 

 impute such criminal designs to the Russian Govern- 

 ment, but there is no doubt that the Scandinavian 

 world is profoundly agitated on the subject. The 

 dread of Russia's advance northward, purely chimerical 

 iLs it may be, has had one good result in compelling 

 Sweden and Norway to forget the soreness of the 

 .separation, and to consider whether they should not 

 form a defensive military alliance against foreign foes. 

 Such an alliance will, of course, be extended to Den- 

 mark. The alarm produced in Christiania and Stock- 

 holm by the Russifying policy in Finland is leading to 

 much expenditure on fortifications and armaments. 

 Such fantastical wickedness could never have been 

 imputed to Russia were it not that her interference with 

 the liberties of Finland seems utterly mad unless some 

 such scheme lies behind. Even then it is mad and 

 bad ; but then there would be some method in its 

 madness. 



