The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1915.

Evening Star, Issue 15929, 8 October 1915, Page 4

The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1915.

Ccxtbaet to what might have been, with some confidence, predicted What Next? at the beginning of the

week, tlio attention of the Empire to-day is not concentrated, to the exclusion of everything else, upon the long . anticipated and. eagerly discussed Anglo-French offensive on the west, lime was when this splendid and successful adsuccess, in part, may be estimated horn German Vross attempts not to deny hut in belittle it-—would have secured and held the interest- of an expectant mankind. Hut other and more unlooked-for sensaliouß. have intervened, and neither the renewed French offensive in the Champagne nor the consolidating of the British gains further north can vie in public interest in London and Paris with, the antics—the tragic antics—of Greece and Bulgaria. 'The realities of war. the rush and roar of battle, the slaying of thousands, and the consequent desolating of thousands of homes, these, temporarily, .nave been overshadowed hy the, conjecture and doubt which have followed swift upon the disclosure of the suicidal policy to which the pro-Gf nnan rulers ot Greece and Bulgaria are doing their best or worst- to commit their respective countries. What the Balkan .States —Serbia. Bulgaria. Greece—need chief above all is peace, Kach of these petty and unruly States has. ‘‘'within quite recent years, been drenched with the blood of it* children, wounded, mangled, and devastated, and not one of them but urgently needs the blessed and healing influences that peace and time alone can give. The peace of Serbia, and with it that of the greater pan of Europe, was, as we know, deliberately broken by the rulers and sialcemen of Austria and Germany, acting in prearranged collusion, and entered upon, in the words of a. wicked and foolish oh! man, with a serene coiißcienco” ; that of Bulgaria, Greece, and, in less degree, of Kumarria still hangs In the balance. Such, briefly, is the position to which the villainies of G-eiman statecraft have brought the larger and more important half of tire race. It in not a spectacle that can give rise to any feeling of satisfaction. So Liras it represents anything at all it represents the partial, transient triumph of the powers of evil rather than those of good. What Europe and the world are at this moment of time, they are principally as the outcome of Gentian policy, which includes and means the conscienceless and unsparing use of each and every weapon that best serve* its purpose, whether that weapon he the sword or money or perjury. Every weapon from out the- whole armory ot Satan is drawn upon in turn.

That Bulgaria’s undertaking to intervene on behalf of Austria, and Germany against Serbia has been in existence for some months is- probably true. No intelligent person was at a loss to estimate the motives dominating Bulgarian policy, and few, if any. placed confidence in a man of the moral and mental type of King Ferdinand. lie is merely acting according to liis kind, and the majority of homestaying men will live to see his collapse. His. future fate may be safely left in the bands of Russia and of his own lielrayed people. Of Greece it is somewhat less easy to speak definitely. Byron said of the Greece of his day: " "I'is Greece, but living Greece no more,” and we of our day may re-edio the .sentiment. Greece is under special and uurepaid obligations, to England, and Greece has within her borders many men of ripe experience who know and feel the truth of these things. Greece, on the popular side, wants no war with England, and, in spit© of the -malign and odious influence that the butcher of Belgium is ablo to exercise—chiefly by way of gold, we suspect—the heart of Greece has no leaning towards Kaiserism; and it knows full well that should Clreece follow Ixer King rather than her patriotic statesmen, that nothing save disaster lies ahead. But there : are Greeks and Greeks, The Greek of the Levant has an evil reputation through the centuries, and “trust nob the Greek” is a familiar - commonplace. Therefore no surprise need be expressed that the charge of receiving bribes is being made against Greek as well as other Balkan |voliticians. The rank and file In the Greek Parliament are open to persuasion. Nearly time© months ago a British officer, who takes alt intelligent interest in the political ns well as a practical part in tin; military situation, wrote : “To-morrow “the Greek Parliament meets. 1 hope “ they haven’t, been bought,’’ which, if It does nothing eke, indicates that there were thus early doubts abroad as to the bona fides of some at least of the newlyelected legislators. King Constantine, however, we can afford to believe, is nothing worse than ft Weak man. Like President Wilson, but with infinitely more excuse, he is not a Statesman ‘born to adapt himself to, or to take advantage of, the great opportunities that are his for making a name in history. This war is proving a, testing time for kings and and sVahestfihft its ftel! fbt the htan in the street. ■

It is difficult to speak, or write, with absolute certainty during times and days such as the present, when news that is “of op .boarig age doth hies the speaker

and “ each niimite teems a. new” story of grief, or anxious thought, or added horror, but we imagine that Germany's desperate- game is nearing to a close. How hard pressed she is for matter of complaint is evidenced in the “ howl ’ with which her .Press rent the heavens when it was known that the Allies had landed 1 troops at Salonika-, and by the pious hope of the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister that America would at last see In the violation of Grecian neutrality by France and Britain something as heinous, if not more so. as Germany’s violation of Belgium. Germany, it may he recalled, forced her way with “ fire “ and sword, red ruin, and the breaking up “of laws” through Belgium in order to minder France in her sleep; Britain and France land' troops at Salonika at the wish of Serbia, whose right to use that port is guaranteed by Treaty, who are acclaimed by the ]K>pulaee and who pass quietly to their allotted non-Greek territory, not to plunder, kill, and ravish, but to help prevent the German barbarians from doing these things and worse to poor, harried, yet still gallant Serbia. Out of this welter and seeming chaos the Allies, we make no doubt, will carve a peace that will leave the rulers of -Greece awl Bulgaria sadder and perhaps wiser men. The pity of it is that this lesson has to be taught, not through the personal loss and pain of one or all of those rulers and instigators, but through" the nameless agonies of the myriads of their inoffensive subjects. Meantime, beyond a possible prolongation of the conflict and a fresh extension of the area of slaughter, the active intervention of the Balkan States—the activities of one of which will probably be balanced by those of another—cannot materially affect the ultimate decision.