Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1907. "THE POWDER MAGAZINE OF EUROPE." SOME SIDE-LIGHTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 16 April 1907, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1907. "THE POWDER MAGAZINE OF EUROPE." SOME SIDE-LIGHTS.

THE region vaguely described at times as "the powder magazine of Europe," — the Balkan and Danubian states — is little known to the general newspaper reader, and it is travelled over only by the more adventurous. One associates it with wildly picturesque and patriotic : brigands made familiar by tho Grand Opera, with sudden killings of obnoxious princelings, with raids and risings and Bulgarian atrocities, with unspeakable Turks who do a little wholesale butchering by way^of a morning's exercise. Except to the very adventurous traveller the locality appears to be of the kind where absence of body is of far more practical utility than presence of mind ; and the tourists personally conducted by the agents of the Messrs Cook knows it not. But while the Balkan and Danubian statea remain a sealed book to the million, there are astute financiers who see in them some of the greatest industrial possibilities of modern times. In especian, the region is expected at no distant date to eclipse both America and Russia as the petroleum supplier of tho world.

While assassinations in Belgrade, oldtime Bulgarian atrocities, and recently that abortive little revolution in Roumania have given the Balkan states an infelix reputation, it is beyond doubt that this part of the world ie full of interest to the observer, and a potent factor in Continental European politics. Mr Harry de Windt's latest book, "Through Savage Europe," will therefore be read with eagerness by those who have procured it. The adventurous traveller gives us the very latest , information regarding the condition of tl>" Balkan peninsula, and he explains very entertainingly why the war correspondent's stock phrase is "Trouble in the Balkans in the spring." In the spring the Balkan fancy lightly turns to thoughts of guns and knives and dangerous things with a petroleum basis. But only a few observers imagined that Roumania, of all places in the region, would develop a small revolution. By accident or design, Mr de J Windt was commissioned by a publishing firm to exploit just the locality where the trouble broke out shortly be- , fore the ructions began. Hence hi;' new book, though written in light vein, is both apposite and informing. ' Mr de Windt had several narrow escapes, but he got back to London safely with his notebooks and his hand camera J after touring about the different Balkan ' states in Southern Russia for some , months, and he made a very agreeable volume out of his experiences. One ■ does not look for accurate or exhaustive ■ information, either geographical, polii tical, commercial, or social, in such a ' volume as this. But within its scope ' it is interesting enough, and it will add considerably to the average reader's knowledge of conditions in South-east-ern Europe. According to Mr de Windt, King Peter of Servia went straight from a Parisian bar room to his ensanguined throne, mid the aroma of cocktails and the "gjou-glou" of dv Maurier's "yin quatre-sous," somewhere not far from the Quartier Latin. It appears that a certain American bar in Paris was his favourite resort before his accession to the throne, and the proprietress, who enjoyed the friendship of Prince Kara, invited all her friends to come and present their homage when it was announced that the would take the throne vacated by the ill-starred Alexander. The bar was decorated with Servian flags, and the disreputable company over their champagne cocktails we're the first to acclaim the new King, who arrived in the evening pallid with excitement. The newly-proclajmed monarch invited his friends to a dinner party in a neighbouring cafe, when he rushed away and ordered a, gorgeous crown for himself from a jeweller in the Rue de la Pflix. * # * # ♦ Mr de Windt is of opinion that King Peter will be assassinated (n. ths not very remote future. His eldest son, the Crown Prince, was lately consigned £o a lunatic asylum in consequence of his too _j:apid mode of life, and' King Peter himself is reported to be weary of the cares of kingship and anxious to get back to the more congenial atmosphere of his American bar in Paris. A cavalry regiment is kept under arms in the palace grounds every night to protect him, and he has also caused a i private subterranean pasrage to be preIpared, so that he may have a chance Incase of sudden attack. *********

t Turning to a more healthy picture, ' Mr de Windt says that Bosnia and Herzegovina have prospered exceedingly since they came under Austrian rule. The chapters on Roumania are of special interest owing to the revolutionary trouble that prevailed there recently; but the writer had no hint of the coming storm when he wrote. Mr de Windt tells us that the Roumanians, who are a branch of the Latin races, and whose language strongly resembles Italian, refuse to regard their country as being on the same level with the other Balkan states. The polite and pleasure loving people of Bukarest, the capital of Roumania consider themselves infinitely superior to their neighbours, the Serbs, BuJg-ars, Vlachs, Greeka, and Turks, who elbow each other on the peninsula. And as Roumania enjoys what is virtually a Constitutional Government, with a wide franchise and fine educational institutions, there seems to be a good foundation for the excellent opinion which the Roumanians entertain of themselves. Mr de Windt opens the eyes of many when he avers that the Roumanian Army is the third most efficient in Europe, with unquestioned loyalty to King Charles. One always associates a Balkan sesquipedalian state army with the opera-bouffe chorus rendered familiar in Offenbach's' "Grande Duchesse." But the rapid quelling of the insurrection is easily accounted for on the basis of the traveller's statement. The industrial future of Roumania seems to be assured, and it is a "dark horse" in the Bourse Handicap. Gold and silver, according to Mr de Windt, have been found in the mountains, and Roumanian petroleum is declared to be superior to that of Russia, and even of America. Certain astute and far-seeing financiers, with the co-operation of the Rothschilds, instituted a fight with "Standard Oil," and the sound of the guns has been heard even in far-away New Zealand. It is not generally known, however, that the first move in the battle was to acquire a controlling interest in the Roumanian petroleum oil wells. The evolution is yet crude ; but in the light of Roumania's "petroleum gift" there is no 'telling what developments there may be even aftei the set-back to the Enropeai. nil industry due to the unhappy condiiicn oi Russia and the anarchy that raged somt time ago at Baku.