No. 274. Vol. XLVI.] 



[October, 191 2. 



THE 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS 



The Progress of the World. 



Rumours of War 



and a 

 Treaty of Peace. 



London, Oct. 2, 1912. 

 No one who had fol- 

 lowed at all closely the 

 trend of Italian policy 

 and thought with regard 

 to the war with Turkey was surprised 

 at the unexpected outbreak of warlike 

 feeling in the Near East. It has 

 always been the intention of the 

 Italian Government to use the lever 

 of the smaller Balkan States as a 

 means to secure peace with Turkey. 

 The theme has been dealt with by 

 Italian editors and cartoonists for quite 

 a long time. It is also true that 

 menace of war in the Balkans renders 

 possible to Turkey a renunciation of 

 territory in Africa. As we pointed 

 out some time ago, the basis by which 

 the spiritual supremacy of the Sultan 

 could be secured was settled ; the only 

 delay has been the necessity for safe- 

 guarding any Turkish Government 

 which made the Peace Treaty. In 

 the Balkan turmoil, however, it will 

 pass unnoticed, and so we will see finis 

 written to another war. But the 

 serious side of the question is whether, 

 when once racial passions and terri- 

 torial ambitions are aroused, they will 

 be easy to control. Both the Balkan 



States, who see every chance that Turkey 

 will now become strong, and Turkey, who 

 would not be averse to showing by 

 European victories that under normal 

 conditions there would have been no 

 African defeats, may feel strongly 

 tempted to let events move on to war. 



We do not believe that 

 Factors in the there will bc War, and 

 Case. it is probable that, as a 



sop to those States 

 which have mobilised their armies and 

 disorganised their national existence, 

 there will be convened some sort of a 

 round-table conference upon reforms. 

 This being so, the military demon- 

 strations of Bulgaria, Servia and 

 Montenegro serve as so much adver- 

 tisement of their right to be present 

 at such a conference. It would be in 

 the Turkish interests to invite them 

 all to meet the Great Powers for one 

 very important reason — they all are 

 firmly convinced that their spheres of 

 interest in Macedonia and Albania are 

 at the same time exclusively theirs, and 

 yet cover the same territory. Bul- 

 garia firmly believes that Macedonia 

 is peopled by Bulgarians, Servia is 

 equally sure that the inhabitants are 

 Servians, while Greece is not at all 



