GERMANISING THE BALKANS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXV, Issue 2126, 29 January 1909, Page 8

GERMANISING THE BALKANS.

Tfl"'*r" -J 1 iin »«» fcr* Inhere can be -no doubt of the rough and brutal methods which the ttermans have extended ti-Gernian influence and increased the .'German' population in the provinces !. they have ' taken from Denmark, , France, Poland and Italy, and when Mr Alexander Ourukus, the. editor of ' the 'tierbsky Retch' and one of the ablest publicists of Bosnia, told in restrained and moderate language what the Germans are now doing in Bosnia, 1 telt horrified for the moment (writes 1 the 'Standard's' correspondent) by tne prospect that lies before us if Europe does not erect a barrier of some kind against the Teutonic inundation which is pouring towards Salonika and Constantinople. In the Serbs, with their racial and religious solidarity, their martial qualities and the difficult nature of the country they inhabit, Europe has ready to her hand all she material for a magnificent barrier. During the last twenty years 100,000 Germans have settled in Croatia, German villages are now to be found as far south as Salonika and the emigration of the Slavs from Herzegovina is so great that the country will soon be empty and therefore in a tit condition to be : parcelled out among German settlers. Even on the extreme southern point of Bosnia the signs of Germanising are evident. On the brow of the great mountain which constitutes the frontier of Novibazar are three gigantic letters, the initials of the words "Francis Joseph, Imperator," and at the frontier town of Übatz all the signs and inscriptions on public buildings are in German.

In Bosnia there is a state of siege real but not formal. In Herzegovina the state of siege is both real and formal. The railways all around are strongly guarded by troops and in some villages near the Montenegrin frontier there are exactly as many soldiers N as there are inhabitants (in Trebinya, for instance, there are 2000 soldiers and 2000 inhabitants). In short, it is clear that if ever there was a country held down by foreign bayonets against the will of 99 per cent. of the population, that country . is Bosnia-Herzegovina. Even if Austria had benefited the people much more than she has done there would be no excuse for her presence here any longer. Even if Servia's record was blacker than it is there would hs no good reason to make that a pretext for refusing autonomy to the kindred peoplo of Bosnia. But the argument which will best appeal to Europe is this: Unless you get Austria to leave Bosnia war will break out in the Balkans within six months, and there is no knowing how wide an area it may embrace.