LAND AND .WATER. 
October 9, 1915. 
when it comes to the real thing, every country, 
Great Britain no less than any other, will refuse 
to be bound by artificial restrictions that have no 
counterpart in natural justice. We should have 
chucked the Declaration of I^ondon if it had been 
sanctioned by Parliament, just as certainly as we 
have chucked it when it was adopted by the 
Government by an executive act which Lord 
Tiverton describes as ultra vires. To the naval 
officer, then, all such agreements, and all 
efforts to make such agreements, are unreal, and 
lead to nothing but misunderstanding. The quite 
sham reputation for hunianitarianisra that any 
country gains by adhering to such proposals is 
doomed to be more than wiped out by the haste 
with which, in war, it Avill disown them. For the 
future, if we are ever made to sign such things 
again, let it be with the quite frank reservation 
that we are free to throw them over whenever we 
like." 
FRO.M THE UiNITED STATES. 
The ineffable Count Bernstorff has, it is 
reported, presented a new Arabic Note — assurin" 
a " negotiable " basis for the discussion of that' 
alTair. What iMr. Wilson will require, however, 
is an answer to his July Note about the Lusitania I 
Some day Berlin must face that issue. Mean- 
while, we are told that Washington has heard 
that we have captured or sunk between sixty and 
seventy German submarines — a German report 
has, I am told, put the figure of those that have 
not returned at fifty-four. We know of no such 
figures here. What is interesting is the story that 
so impressed are the American naval authorities 
with these figures that there is now no more talk 
of abandoning battleships. But there never was 
any such talk amongst responsible people in 
Washington. The experts there have always 
known, and often, since hostilities began, said, 
that sea power still resides, as it always has, in the 
largest fleets of the strongest units. No new dis- 
covery in this matter has been made. There was 
none to make. A. H. POLLEN. 
MR A. H. POLLENS LECTURES ON THE NAVY. 
Mr. Pollen will lecture on the Navy on behalf of naval and military 
chanties at: Clifton College, Oct. 8; Wexford, Oct. 11; Dublin (Rath- 
minesTowaHall), Oct. 12; Limerick, Oct. 13; Cork, Oct. 14. 
GLUES TO THE BALKAN MAZE. 
By Dr. E. J. DILLON. 
September 29, 1915. 
NEAR Eastern events of the past ten days 
bear out my statement that the plum- 
met and line have yet to be invented 
with which to take trustworthy sound- 
ings of Balkan politics. The improbable'is never 
eliminated in the Peninsula and the unexpected 
IS always happening there. Like a bolt from the 
blue King Ferdinand's general mobilisation order 
^me crashing through the serene atmosphere of 
'Entente diplomacy while self-complacent states- 
men were presenting him with Macedonia and 
hoping, with his collaboration, soon to revive the 
'iialkan League. " Another illusion gone " ex- 
claimed a Continental diplomatist when the news 
reached him There have been nothing but delu- 
sions about the Balkan States since the European 
vv^ar began. One of the most mischievous of them 
all derives from our mistaken notions about the 
psychology of the peoples who inhabit the lively 
fh'rrd'jh. ^^««tern statesmen have no Ariadne 
wind^ni^ n?7if % \^^''^- ^^"^"Sh the labyrinthine 
windings of the Balkanic mind, and, sooth to say, 
they never deemed it worth their while to acquire 
Alliens Tlf .K '° "^P"'*"^ *° "°™« ^^ ^ith the 
conclndp^ K V^® requisite preliminaries were 
Tb^a hiV.l ' n^ '^" ''"^^ ^^"^^ ^^«^« ^a. seen 
^elos CahfnJ'' the arrangement, and the Veni- 
CI amber Fn. ^'^ /n ' *°^^^^^^ ^^^^ the 
B^lk^n Q, Jor one of the peculiarities of the 
ma ter^/',1,^'' ^'^f ^" t'^^^' ^^at after you have 
mfnd you h.Vr'""' '^'^'^''P ^^ the natTonll 
Sent Hes Z^\t "'^"^"'S^f^ that the decisive ele- 
the bias of soir "' "">^"] ^" ^^' interest or 
those deniocratS%?"f ^^^^^^dual. For each of 
who a!™ po ses,^^^^^^ J s governed by a master 
give but one SnpTe . S^l''' P°^^'- ^^^^^ to 
'*'^"P^^ • -Bulgaria is represented in 
12 
International politics, not by the Chamber but" 
by an Austrian-German, Ferdinand of Coburg, 
who publicly approved the " vigorous policy " of 
the Turkish Pasha, who was responsible for the 
Bulgarian atrocities in the 'seventies. In no 
other European country, not even in Prussia, is 
one man Government as absolute as in the Balkan 
States. The abuse of it may perhaps entail ex- 
ceptionally severe pains and penalties there, but 
these being hardly ever applied are not deterrent. 
It IS those leading individuals, therefore, with 
their respective ambitions, temper, and limita- 
tions, and not the nations over which they rule 
that constitute the dominant factors in Balkan 
politics. 
Disregard of that truth was the source of 
another delusion, which the writer of these lines 
often and vainly sought to dispel— namely, the 
belief m the possibility of a permanent Balkan 
League, as united as the Swiss Republic and as 
capable of defending itself as is Turkey or Spain. 
It IS true that the heads of the different Balkan 
realms have it in their power to bring about a 
temporary coalition for a definite purpoie, mainly 
destructive. And they used that 'power o expel 
Turkey from Macedonia and Thrace. But a per- 
J wff h^-?!?"' '"'V''' the Entente Powers dream 
,,nion Li ^k"^ °^ "" ""'"'^^ "fl^«' its customs- 
union and other common institutions, is as diffi- 
npnfl • ^"i"'® ^' 'U' ^° establish peace perma- 
?' . ^ '"^ .^."v.™P^- J"" S^'^"^^ only at the larger 
of thTBnlL^' problem the historLal anthithefes 
?dlk iht W^"'' ^'^' ^^'t differences of their 
Ideals, the conflicting character of their political 
un?o'n"nf h'^'^^ '°""i^ ^'T'' '^^'' barriers to th^ 
can dildr' r?i'' ''^''^ ^° cliplomatic labour 
sul S? -^.1 ^^' '"'P^^t the Balkan Penin- 
sula might aptly be compared to Europe the 
struggle between Bulgaria and Servia fo?Maoe! 
