A NEW GREAT POWER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 534, 18 January 1913, Page 3

A NEW GREAT POWER.

Mr Howden Smith, a young American war correspondent who has been making a name for himself recently by h!s vivid descriptive message from the Balkans, contributes to a recent issue of the London Express some interesting speculations regarding the position of the Balkan States once the present war is concluded. He inclines to the opinion that the Bulgarians, the Greeks, the Montenegrins and the Servians will federate in one Empire, with Constantinople as their capital and Ferdinand King of Bulgaria, as their Emperor. He admits the jealousies and differences of national out look which exist between the Bulgars and the Serbs, the Montenegrins and the Vlachs, and Greeks and the Roumanians, and the Tzigane and the Albanians, but against all these divergencies he sets the fact that the Balkan States have discovered that whereas singly they were impotent, united they are irresistible. In one short month, by acting in concert, they have lifted their countries from the level of barrier States and localities for comic opera scenarios to a position equal with that of any of the Great. Powers. Counting in the territories which have been conquered in the recent fighting, and others which will accrue to them by any treaty they may sign, 'the Allies may reckon upon a combined population of more than 15,000,000. They

can at present put at least 1,000,000 armed men in tha field, men who have "proved themselves the equal of any troops in Europe." King Ferdinand is generally recognised to be the ablest of the Balkan rulers, and according to Mr Howden Smith, his coronation as Emperor would not necessarily mean ; an hereditary tenure of the Imperial crown for his family. Ferdinand of Bulgaria, crowned \ Emperor of the Balkans in the Church of St. Sophia, with his capital in CoristantinoDle, might revive all the glories of the Eastern Emperors, and as logical successor through them of the Roman Caesars would perhaps be able to build up a State in South - Eastern Europe second to hone on the Continent.