6o6 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



mutual reserve. France renounces 

 nothing, but expects the reparation due 

 to her. She is {peaceful and will never 

 attack German)'. The question of ques- 

 tions, therefore, is: \\\\\ Germany at- 

 tack France? 



Germany has every need of peace in 

 Europe, not only to consolidate her in- 

 ternational position but to assimilate 

 the particularist elements by which she 

 is svirrounded — Alsace-Lorrainers in the 

 West, Danes in the North, Poles in the 

 East, and Catholics in the South. New 

 territories would only create new difficul- 

 ties without bringing appreciable ele- 

 ments of strength. Yet, after all. these 

 things are only relatively true. Matters 

 have changed somewhat in the last 

 twenty years. The effects of German 

 development and the desire for expan- 

 sion have alread)' begun to weigh 

 heavily on Franco-German relations 

 even in Europe, so that new ambitions 

 arising out of new needs may create new 

 motives, and conflicts may result. 



A serious problem is the number of 

 Germans in France. In Paris alone 

 there are 150,000. What would happen 

 should France adopt, with regard to 

 Germans, in her frontier regions police 

 measures analogous to those which the 

 Empire has frequently adopted towards 

 the French in the annexed provinces ? 

 Ever}'one knows that Germany does not 

 produce all the minerals she requires, and 

 that at a not very distant date she will 

 probably have exhausted her own 

 supply. Several parts of France are 

 capable of assuring for almost an un- 

 limited period all that Germany needs 

 for her industries, one of the richest 

 being in .Meurthe-et-AIoselle, where 

 numerous German industries have con- 

 cessions. It must be borne \n mind that 

 while Germany is continuing to develop 

 her powers of production and expan- 

 sion, the birth-rate in France is decreas- 

 ing. 



THE WISDOM OF THE FOOLISH. 



Writmg at the time when there ap- 

 peared good prospect of an amicabV 

 settlement of the Balkan difficulties, Mr. 

 Spencer Campbell showed great know- 

 ledge of the situation, and forecasted 

 the present position with great accuracy. 

 His article in the Fortnightly Review 

 makes particularly interesting reading 

 just now. He points out that the de- 

 cision of the Young Turks to resume 

 hostilities was regarded by Europe as a 

 fatal error of judgment. Although it 

 resulted in the loss of Adrianople, 

 Scutari and Janma, Mr. Campbell 

 points out that time, and time only, can 

 cast up the full balance-sheet with the 

 complete tale of the profit and loss 

 which a campaign has entailed, and it is 

 possible that, when the Balkan war can 

 be judged by the impartial verdict of 

 posterity, its continuation may have 

 proved a wiser step than the reasoned 

 submission which would have earned 

 the approval of the Powers. 



If Enver or his friends had deliberately 

 tried to emulate the Hamidiaii diplomacy 

 and nlav off one people against the other, 

 they could not have succeeded more admirably 

 than bv their determination to go on fighting. 

 The glass of the future is dark and clouded. 



Mr. Campbell emphasises the fact 

 that the kingdom of Servia is too often 

 regarded as a negligible quantity com- 

 pared with Bulgaria. 



Mr. Gladstone's championship of the latter 

 state, her material prosperity, the public 

 ignorance of the diabolical methods of the 

 comitadji on the one side, and the sinister 

 tragedies which stained the fued between 

 Obrenovitch and Karageorgevitch on the 

 other have all combined to make a very one- 

 sided picture of the two countries. As a 

 matter of fact, during the next decade Servia 

 will have more direct influence on European 

 politics than any Balkan country except Kou- 

 mania. She is a purely Slav state in the 

 first place, and should Russia have one day 

 to choose between Servia or Bulgaria in a 

 second internecine struggle, she would in- 

 fallibly throw in her weight with Servia. 

 Bulgaria's frontier will not march with 

 those of any great Power, now that Turkey 

 is in decline, whereas Servia is nob only con- 

 terminous with Austria-Hungary, but in the 

 Dual Monarchy there are more Serbs than 

 in the Kingdom ; indeed, the destinies of the 

 Serbo-Croats are one of the great problems 

 of the immediate future. Therefore, should 

 the two disputants be obliged to call in exter- 

 nal advice for the settlement of their claims, 

 Austria will be in a serious dilemma. She 

 has worked up excellent relations with Bul- 

 garia, but if she tlnvarts Servia once again, 

 especially an enlarged or victorious Servia. 

 she will be laying up the seeds of grave 

 trouble in lier own body. 



