The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1912. THE EUROPEAN CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 306, 23 December 1912, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1912. THE EUROPEAN CRISIS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The Peace Conference has adjourned for the third time, and ail the while the Turks are going steadily on strengthening their position at Adrianople and along the ChataJdja. lines. So obviously is it to the interest of the Turkish Government to protract negotiations in this •way that the Bulgarians are getting oneasy. They accuse the Turks of manoeuvring to gain time, and the general impTeeskra seems to be that, if the Turks try to revietuai Adrianople, Bulgaria will break off negotiations at once. ■All this suggests that the Greeks probably had good reason for their decision to go on fighting rather than concede the Turks the advantage of an armistice just now. On the other hand, the Turks process to be so firmly resolved to keep Adrianople that they are ready to go on with the war at once if the Bulgarians still insist upon the surrender of Adrianople as one of the conditions of peace. It is possihle that wiser counsels may prevail, but just now it certainly does not seem as if the peace negotiations : were destined to prove much more than an interlude between two stages in this disastrous struggle. On the other hand, it is satisfactory to note that one of the greatest dangere involved in this conflict—the incompati bility of Servia's claims with Austria's ambitions—seems to have been obviated. M. Poincare, as Prime Minister of France, may be assumed to speak with authority, and he has just informed th - Chamber of Deputies that the Power* have accepted the proposal for an autonomous Albania, nominally .tribu tary to Turkey, but under European con trol; and that Servia will be satisfied with commercial facilities at a neutral port on the Adriatic approached by a neutral railway. All this, if true, is very satisfactory, as removing a probab!' source of conflict between the Balkan Allies and the Triple Alliance. But even supposing that Servia aettles her difficulty with Austria, and the' Turks arrange mutually satisfactory terms of peace with the Allies, there is still to be considered the question as to how the Allies can adjust their own competing claims for considerations in Macedonia and elsewhere. It is quite clear thai, the rivalry between Bulgarians and. Greeks for a share of Macedonia is .as keen as ever. Ferdinand, who is really responsible for the organisation of the Alliance and the success of the war, is not likely to abate his claims now that he is acually in Salonika. On the other hand, the Greeks, who have also madi great sacrifices and won unexpected victories, can fairly argue that, by beating the brunt of the war single-handed now, they are paralysing the energies of the Turks, and preventing the Porte from putting so strong a case before the Peace Conference. Altogether, the situation, as between the Allies themselves, is a singularly difficult one, and even with the Austro-Servian claims out of the way, the danger in the Near East is by no means over yet.