Montenegro Conquered?

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15489, 17 January 1916, Page 6

Montenegro Conquered?

In a leading article, summarised in today's cable messages. "The Times" calls attention to* tho fact that the fall of Mount Lovchen places Montenegro at tho mercy of the enemy, and- that her independent existence is imperilled for the first, time in her heroic history. Later cablegrams announce the, fall of the capital, Cetinje, and state that Austria has offered ari armistice, and • proposed tho negotiation of a separate peaco. The same proposals, it will bo remombered, were mado earlier in the war to our unhappy" Ally, Serbia, and were at once rejected by her. But the course of war has proved (desperately unfortunate for our Balfewi friends, and Nicholas has not the satae grounds for immediate hope that lining Peter had eight months ago. Bitter as defeat, and doubly bitter as ithe acceptance of terms from his- treacherous neighbour, Austria, must be 1.0 the man who, forty years_ago, was described by Freeman as, "if God wills, the des- " tined liberator of tho Balkan " peoples," and who has nevor flinched from the task, it may well be that TCinn- Nicholas will have no choico but acceptance. Since the beginning of tho war, the resources of his tiny kingdom, some 6000 square miles, largely barren country, and some half million people all told, have been strnined to the utmost. In the Serbian advances in Bosnia-Herzegovina, his forces did yeoman's service. His artillery on Mount Lovchen has been a steaily menace to Cattaro, and a valuable .adjunct to Allied operations in the Adriatic. In spite of local distress, and very bitter distress, his doors have always stood open for Serbian refugees. It is a glorious record, even in the histojry of a people called ->y Mr Gladstone, in perhaps his greatest speech, "a band of "heroes such as the world has rarely "seen." To tho modern German mind, Montenegro's story of centuries, of successful struggle against tho Turks is merely a " bad joke of historysmall Stales, in the German view, have no right to exist for they are weakness trying to pose as power, and therefore "essentially ludic"rous." But spiritual values do not depend on material size, or even on industrial efficiency. To all lovers of liberty, and admirers of those i'or whom liberty means hard and unremitting

service, Montenegro, whether it survives its present disaster, or for the moment, is forced to succumb, will always be a sourcc of generous inspiration. "Never will ancient freedom li perish, so long as wo still hold our " littlo Tsernagora (Black Mountain)," runs the old Serbian song, and from tho year 1188, when Ivan Tchernoievitch withdrew to tho mountain, strongholds and founded Cctinje. right un to tho present hour, that hold has been main- | tained, and that ancient freedom dauntlcsrly asserted. For centuries war with the Turk was practically unceasing, yet, often with odds of more than six to one against them, that handful of gallant men won victories and kept their rugged country free. That their present downfall should comc from Austria, and Cattnro, is ono of tho cruellest ironies of history. In the beginning of their independent existence, Cattaro was part of their territory. In the great European stfagglo a hundred years ago, fighting side by side with England and Russia, as they are fightins now, they once more seized Cattaro, and wero welcomed as deliverers by tho men of the neighbouring Jjocchc. But both town and territory were "filched" from them by Austria, and their great Allies made no protest. Again, in 1878, they wrested from tho Turks the necessary outlets of Dulcigno and Spizza, and again, under European pressure, had to rostoro Duleigno and yield Spizza to Austria. It is a sorry story, though, "thanks, we aro proud to say, to England, tho later grievance was in part redressed. But that now, fighting once more side by side with all that is best in Europe, against all that is worst, tho tiny State should havo found itself, after seventeen months of war, with ammunition exhausted, succour not forthcoming, and defence no longer possible, is a 6orrier story still. God helping, England and her Allies will in the end restore the littlo peoples to their rights. But they cannot restore their dead, or wipe out tho memories of their intolerable wrongs.