THE FATE OF MONTENEGRO.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 307, 27 December 1915, Page 4

THE FATE OF MONTENEGRO.

Unless Italy or some other of the Entente Powers speedily intervenes by sending direct military aid or else by creating a diversion of Teutonic force into another direction, the warning given in the "Giornale d'ltalia" may be fulfilled, and Montenegro may share the fate of Serbia and of Belgium. The Germans may have been more or less sincere when they declared, on the eve of the invasion of Serbia, that their only object was to 6ecure for their armies a highway through Serbia and Bulgaria toj Constantinople, but that otherwise they I would not interfere with the Balkan peoples. The only abject they could have for destroying Montenegro ] would be to prevent that land from | affording a refuge where the out- j numbered Serbian army can form itself J anew. But in view of their immense I aims elsewhere and their pressing need of acting rapidly, it cannot be worth their while to divert part of their forces from where they are urgently needed, in order to crush an army already so reduced as that of Serbia. The conquest of Montenegro would be worthless in itself, and they are aware that it would never be accomplished without heavy lesses on their side. The case is quitu otherwise with Austria, which has a stronger motive for crushing Montenegro than Serbia. A glance at the i Balkan map will show that the southerly coast of Dalmatia was meant by nature to form the seaboard of "the Black I Mountain," and until it is either united , and federated with Montenegro, that | little kingdom is pressed in between the hostile and aggressive Empire of Austria, j tho friendly State of Serbia, and the ho? | ' tile and half barbarous tribes of Albania, and at the same time it is deprived of I any outlet to the sea, except at Dulcignoand Antivari, which have not proved | convenient ports. The harbour the Montenegrins desire and need is the Bocche di Cattaro, with its islands and the town of Cattaro, that once was Montenegrin before it fell to Venice. The Venetians, when making a compact of peace with Austria, gave up the bar bour and town to that Empire. Sinw that time the Montenegrin Princes have recognised that they had a more dangerous enemy at Vienna than at Constantinople. The Austrians will never, unless compelled, give up an inch of their Adriatic seaboard, and they recognise that the Montenegrins on their side will never bo satisfied without Cattaro. There might well have been more fighting than there has been before now between the great Power and one of the smallest of the nations, had it not beei that for centuries the * Montenegrin Princes have made it a principle of their policy never to be the aggressors, but to remain always on the defensive. Until now the Austrians have not bad the chance of destroying this people, whose spirit cannot be subdued by fear or I force or diplomacy.

It is here that Italy intervenes. The main motive of her Government is, no I doubt, the interest of their own country.. What Italy least of all wishes is to seel a great Power like Austria strengthen-1 ing itself on the shores of the narrow Adriatic Sea opposite to her own shores.' But there are personal motives as well to prompt her to save the Montenegrins. I Her Queen is the daughter of Mon-1 tenegro's reigning King, and, like all her; family, Queen Helcne is passionately j attached to the grand, though barren, j mountain home of her race. Italy has j not delayed. Her troops have already j landed in Albania, where, fortunately, I she had beforehand secured a coast base . in Valona. The only question is whether the forces sent will be sufficient to deal with the Austrians, Bulgarians, and their Albanian partisans.

It seems to have been rather too lightly assumed by Europe, and, perhaps, even by the southern Slavs themselves, that when once the allied army of Serbs and Montenegrins reached the Black Mountain they were secure, and that there the remnant could find a refuge where they could rest and revive their strength, reform, and equip themselves again. It is an historical fact that this rocky region is a hazardous and difficult country for foreign invaders. "In Montenegro," a popular saying goes, "a small army is beaten, and a large army starves." The saying has been borne out by their past history. In the seventeenth century the Turkish Pasha of Skodra, with an army that outnumbered the mountaineers by ten to one, 6wept over their country until only an unconquerable remnant of the race remained on Mount Lovcen, but before long Soliman was forced to retreat from lack of supplies, and then the Montenegrin and Albanian tribes fell upon the Turks. But, unfortunately, the natives themselves suffer from the very barrenness and inaccessibility that protects them, and famines frequently follow in the train of war. At the present hour it is quite certain that if relief in some form does not come from the outside world, the mountaineers cannot support and provision an army that is still said to consist of about 130,000 men, with refugees of both sexes, and a number of prisoners.

Another popular saying of the country is: "When God made tho world, and was distributing stone_ over tho earth, the bag that held them burst, and

J let them all -fall on Montenegro." The saying must not be taken too literally. I Besides, the rock_ there are, of course, ' pasture lands, and there is also a small— too Bmall—strip of land opening upon the sea near Antivari and Dulcigno, the two ports. The pasture is scaaaty, and the peasants live hardily with no more than enough for their needs. It is true that since the Treaty of Berlin, aiter the war of 1878, Montenegro has been in possession of a small—too small —strip of more fertile lower ground near the sea, and that 6he has the two seaports of Antivari and of Dulcigno. But the Machiavellian tactics of Austria have robbed both these ports of half their value to her, for the village of Spica, commanding Antivari, was left in Austrian hands, and a high range blocks it from the capital, while, as for Dulcigno, the only practicable route between it and the mainland passes through Scutari, which, until its recent capture by the Montenegrins was in "the hands of hostile Albanians. And the acquisition of these ports so close to Austrian territory has been .ather a doubtful blessing, for they are exposed to attack either by the Austrians themselves or j by the Albanian tribes set on by them.

In the centuries when Montenegro struggled most fiercely with the Turks, the country had no seaports, no roads, and no fortifications, for they trusted to their native rocks and peaks. But this is an impossible condition for a modern State, and under the reigning Prince Nicholas a good highway was made through the country. His ancestors, whose land was continually invaded, refused to make roads along- which an enemy could drag his cannon, and Nicholas may yet regret that he did not keep to the old custom. It is, however, but a forlorn expedient to keep a country barbarous lest greater nations should attack and subdue it. Montenegro must not be allowed to fall to Austrians and Bulga.s. No nation on the earth is at this hour at such an urgent crisis of its fate. On the east and on the west it is being attacked by Austro-Germans, and by Bulgarians. -At the most before the war began the two nations of Serbia and Montenegro, together numbered only four millions, and this number must have been reduced in the terrible retreat from Kosse/vo. Against them are the two great Powers of Austria and Germany, who, if not otherwise occupied, could draw upon forces outnumbering them enormously, nnd who have set on Bulgars and Albanians to help them do the work of destruction. Bnt the aid that can save must be aid given at once. And just now upon the fate of Montenegro depends that of Serbia.