206 



The Review of Reviews. 



Sin e the outbreak of the war Russia has been the 

 least neutral of the neutral Powers — that is to say, 

 she has always shown a leaning to the side of Italy. 

 The question of opening the Straits, apparently,, is her 

 immediate object in the Near East, and we have yet to 

 learn whether she will be willing to sacrifice that desire 

 in' the common interest. 



DELAYS OF DIPLOMACY. 



A European declaration to Turkey and to Italy, the 

 fundamental articles of which should be Lybia for 

 Italy, the islands in the j^gean for Turkey, and the 

 status quo for the rest of the Ottoman Empire, is the 

 first matter to be arranged. When this has been done 

 it will be soon enough to think of a Conference to settle 

 the details. It would only be just to award some 

 jiecuniary indemnity to Turkey, and Europe would 

 require guarantees for the Christian population of the 

 islands. The solution of the question, however, does 

 not seem very near. In this century of steam and 

 electricity the tendency of diplomacy is not speed, 

 but delay. 



THE QUESTION OF THE GREEK ISLANDS. 



In the mid-July issue of the same review, M. Y. M. 

 (joblet writes on the question of the Islands in the 

 /Egean. Though the Italo-Turkish war did not create 

 the problems of the Archipelago, it has certainly 

 awakened Hellenism. Crete believes the hour has at 

 last come for her to realise her desires. Her position 

 seems illogical and intolerable. She cannot be an 

 Ottoman sandjah, or a Greek department, or an island 

 with autonomy, or the possession of any Great Power. 

 While the position is illogical, it is by no means excep- 

 tional, but it can hardly be considered intolerable, 

 since the Cretans have less to pay in ta.xation than 

 they would have to pay as Greek citizens. They have 

 often tried to emancipate themselves, and in the war 

 they think they recognise another opportunity for 

 action. They have already sent deputies to Athens, 

 but M. Venizelos did not allow the Chamber to receive 

 them, 



REVIVAL OF HELLENISM. 



The autonomy of Samos is not respected by the 

 Turkish Government. Cyprus, once ruined and 

 ill-populated, has made great progress during the 

 iliirty 3'ears of British rule, and is demanding a better 

 form of Parliamentarism than that at present in force. 

 She also objects to pay tribute to Turkey. In the 

 Sporades all the privileges they once enjoyed were 

 suppressed by the Young Turks in 1900. For thirty 

 centuries the Archipelago has been the centre of 

 Hellenism, and neither the conquerors of Asia nor the 

 diplomatists of Europe have be^i able to take away 

 this racial character from the islands. Maintenance 

 of the racial Hellenic idea was the thought which 

 inspired the Assembly at Palmos when it proclaimed 

 the autonomy of the Sporades on June 20th last. It 

 seems quite natural for the islands to turn to the little 

 kingdom which alone represents the glorious empire 

 of former days. But is this weak country still the centre 



of the Greek world ? Appeals for union have always 

 alternated with declarations of independence in the 

 Sporades, in Cyprus, and in Crete. If diplomatists had 

 only taken half as much trouble to solve the Eastern 

 Question as for a century they have taken to complicate 

 it, Europe would long ago have been delivered from 

 these continual alarms, and it would not have needed 

 Italy to want Tripoli to get attention directed to the 

 state of affairs in the Archipelago. The Powers have 

 only their pusillanimity to blame for what they have 

 to suffer to-day. 



THE EUROPE.\N RECONQUEST 

 OF NORTH AFRICA. 



Writing in the American Historical Review. A. C. 

 Coolidge describes Africa Minor, which comprises the 

 territories of Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli. He 

 records the attempts at colonisation and conquest, 

 beginning with the Phoenicians and ending with the 

 Italian raid on Tripoli. He believes that " before long 

 now Europe will once more be supreme throughout 

 North Africa, where her domination will be more 

 complete and more extensive than it was in the days 

 of the Roman Empire. Although there are parts of 

 Morocco as unexplored as if they were in the innermost 

 recesses of Asia, and there are oases in Tripoli where no 

 European has been seen for many years, they will soon 

 have their wireless telegraph stations and be accessible 

 to the aeroplane, if not to the automobile. Europe has 

 come equipped with all the paraphernalia of Western 

 civilisation. The resources of modern science will 

 enable her to triumph over material obstacles, tap new- 

 sources of wealth, and in .spots at least make the desert 

 lilossom like the rose. They will not, however, speedily 

 change the spirit of Islam. Under French rule in 

 Algeria the native population has multiplied, and it 

 will multiply elsewhere under the same conditions, and 

 though we may still expect a considerable influx of 

 European colonists into North Africa, the whole of 

 which is now open to them, they are not likely to ever 

 constitute the majority of the inhabitants. This will 

 continue predominately Berber, as it was under the 

 Romans, and may resist assimilation to the conquerors 

 as successfully as it did then. It is France that in these 

 regions has succeeded to the heritage of Rome. Com- 

 pared with her Italy and Spain have but meagre 

 portions, and their own emigrant children add to her 

 strength. It is France first and foremost that seems 

 called upon to demonstrate whether the European 

 reconquest of North -Africa, after more than eleven 

 hundred years of Asiatic dominion, is to be merely a 

 material or also a moral one. Granting that 'the 

 majority of the people will always be of the primitive 

 native stock, what will be the expression of that 

 civilisation — the French of advanced modern thought 

 or the Arabic of the Koran ? Time alone can 

 furnish the answer to this fateful question, which is 

 of immeasurable importance to the future of France, 

 and thereby of consequence to the whole world." 



