346 



The Review of Reviews. 



Ph:itogral-h hy Messrs. T/iowfsou.} \Ncixi Bond Street. 



Captain Amundsen, 



Nansen. he started fifteen years ago in the Belgian 

 Antarctic expedition, and drifted about in the Belgica 

 for twelve months. On returning home again a restless 

 fever once more drove him towards the ice : this time he 

 spent two years in a small boat of only forty-eight tons, 

 in the neighbourhood of the North magnetic Pole. 

 He then planned to make a push to the North Pole in 

 order to forestall Peary. Having failed in that ambition 

 he turned his attention once more to the Antarctic, 

 and has succeeded in cutting out Captain Scott. 

 Amundsen seems to have done better with his dogs 

 than Captain Scott did with his ponies. The Nor- 

 wegians are naturally very e.xultant over the exploit, 

 which is worthy of the great traditions of Norse 

 heroism. 



Italy having failed, utterly and 

 ignominiously failed, in 'I'ripoli, 

 where she has hardly gained an 

 inch of territory beyond cover of 

 her ships' gun fire, is now endeavouring to bluff Europe 



The Cloud 



In 



the Near East. 



into coercing the Turks to abandon the most Moham- 

 medan pro\-ince in their Empire. Europe is impervioiis 

 to the Italian suggestion. 'I lie meeting of the King of 

 Italy will) the Kaiser seems to have produced no 

 result. France will not lend them money, and England 

 will not lend them support. There remains Russia, 

 and here, we admit, we are puzzled. Russia seems to 

 be inclined to support Italy. The support is purely 

 platonic. But it has been emphasised bj the recall of 

 M. Tcharikoff from the Russian Embassy at Constanti- 

 nople, and the retirement of her able Councillor. M. 

 Mandelstamm, from the Diplomatic Service. I do not 

 know what M. Sazonoff is driving at. But it ought to 

 be something very good to justify the sacrifice of such 

 an able and devoted servant of the Tsar as M. Tchari- 

 koff. Russia, like Britain, suffers from a singular lack 

 of capable diplomatists of the first rank. M. Tcharikoff 

 had a long and varied experience at Bukhara, at 

 Sofia, at Rome, at Belgrade, at the Hague, and 

 latterly at Constantinople. He is a man of signal 

 transparency of character, with a great simplicity 

 of style and a keen and cultivated intelligence. 

 At the Hague it was he more than M. Nelidoff who 

 secured the success of the Conference. At Constan- 

 tinople he had achieved a place only second to that 

 enjoyed by Baron Marschall von Biaberstein. He was 

 the friend of the Turks, the Bulgarians, the Greeks, aiid 

 all the Balkan peoples. He was emphatically an 

 advocate for peace and federation. Why he should 

 have been sacrificed I do not know. It is stated that he 

 was flung over at the demand of Count Berchhold, 

 Count Aehrenthal's successor ; but St. Petersburg has 

 not yet become a registry office of the decrees of 

 Austria. Dr. Dillon, who is in close touch with the 

 Russian Foreign Office, protests that M. Tcharikoff's 

 recall is no portent of impending war. I hope so. But 

 if Russia is not about to change her pwlicy, why on 

 earth should she change her ambassador ? It will be 

 a long time before the new man can gather'up even 

 the crumbs of the prestige of his predecessor. 



Italy, it is announced, is about to 



Forcing try and force the Dardanelles, 



the Dardanelles ? dirigible airships co-operating with 



her fleet. So far as the Turks are 



concerned Italy has a monopoly of the air and a 



superiority on the sea. But she is impotent on land. 



When the war broke out everyone flung up his cap 



and said, " Behold the justification of all that Mahan 



has written concerning the dominance of the sea power." 



But after six months of war everybody is singing 



another tune. The omnipotent sea power can do 



nothing to force the fight to a fini^ih, because the Turk 



