PARTITION OF PROSPECTIVE SPOIL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 48, 25 August 1914, Page 6

PARTITION OF PROSPECTIVE SPOIL

One of the most weird features of the European conflict is the manner in which combatant Powers are offering the living bodies of one another to present non-combatants, as remuneration foF armed assistance. For instance, it

Rumania, offers that important Balkan kingdom " all Servian territory occupied by Rumanians." To Bulgaria Austriaoffers that section of Macedonia which Servia holds by virtue of .the two Balkan wars; and to Albania, "all Albanian territory in Servia's occupation." This dismembering of an energetic little country that refuses to regard itself as dead may seem to be an unwarrantable presumption, yet such arrangements have their place in practical politics, a« is proved by the fact that, prior to their attack on the Turk, Bulgaria and Servia made the partition of the prospective spoil the subject of an express agreement — which, in accordance with Balkan traditions, they subsequently broke. Perhaps it was a piece of arrogant assurance on the part of Bulgaria and Servia to cook the Turkish hare before it was caught, but events proved that the only unwarranted presumption in this case was not their ability to catch the Turk, but their utter incapacity to afterwards deal honestly with each other. There is a big difference, however, between the position of the Balkan allies in 1912 and that occupied by Rumania to-day. In order to create a war of advantage against Turkey, the Balkan League was absolutely necessary. But in 1914 Austria has created her own war, and a noncombatant nation will be only human if, before throwing its sword into the scale, it devotes a little time to trying to pick the winner. It would assuredly be .unwise to sell itself to the highest bidder till it forms some idea, as to whether the other party will bo able to deliver the goods. On the other hand, it must not wait too long, lest ite assistance- be not required, or required only at a very much reduced consideration. Both these aspects of the issue must now be present in the mind of Italy, as well as tha* of Rumania. Assuming the winning chances of the two sets of combatants to be equal, Italy would profit far more by siding with, the Entente than ' with her former allies. What Italy most needs in Europe is the Adriatic littoral of Austria herself, and that Albanian foothold which Vienna has always opposed. Would a, triumphant Austria ever countenance 6uch concession*? So, also, with Rumania. The idea of Austria giving to Rumania "all Servian territory occupied by Rumanians" does not fit in very well with geographic and ethnographic facts. But the real Greater Rumania— just like the Greater Servia and the Italia, Irridenta— lie* inside Austria's own boundaries. On her eastern frontiers Austria present* to her neighbours territories almost wholly alien in population to the dominant Magyar and German races. Nearly ninetenths o^f Galicia, the trans-Carpathian province now invaded by ' Russia, is Poli,«h or Ruthenian (Little Russian) ; and Transylvatiia, the portion of Hungary adjoining Rumania, is mostly peopled by Rum&niane. According to census figures, Rumania, ia her total population of about 6,600,000, has 6,000,000 Rumanians, and across the border in Transylvania, dwell about 1,500,000 other Rumanians who, although they are about three-fifths of the' population of Transylvania, are excluded from power and political equality. The ruling race is the Hungarians or Magyars, with whom may be bracketed the Szeklera (closely akin to the Magyars), and about 250,000 Germans. In 1868 Transylvania was incorporated with Hungary, losing every vee^ig* of its former autonomy, and the persistent Magyarisation of the territory has been bitterly resented by the Rumanians. On racial grounds, therefore, the natural extension of Rumania, would appeal* to really lie in Austria-Hungary rather than in Servia, and this point will certainly not be lost sight of in Bucharest. Throughout the Dual Monarchy there are about 3,000,000 Rumanians, and probably 750,000 Italians, and the presence of these Romance races, as well as the somewhat heterogeneous branches of the Slav family, greatly complicates the position of the Vienna Government. No country offers so many • racial and geographic temptations to her various neighbom's. If there is any body politic that appears to be altogether suited for dismemberment, it ie the Dual Monarchy itself.