THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1912. GREECE AND HER ALLIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15168, 6 December 1912, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1912. GREECE AND HER ALLIES.

The value of a common . enemy in cementing international friendships and strengthening international alliances has been the ~ frequent theme .of . philosophical statesmen. A mutual distrust of Germany has been the inspiring .influence in the notable rapprochement between Britain and France, countries which were as mutually inimical when they were peerless rivals in a struggle for the mastery of the seas and for world-wide commercial dominion. In the Balkans, fear and hatred of Turkey brought about, a temporarily firm alliance between Christian States, each one of which felt itself powerless to stand alone against the common enemy. As long as Turkey was to be feared Greek and" Bulgar, Serb and Montenegrin, fought steadily together in a common plan of campaign, but with the crippling of Turkey, and the lifting of the long terror of the pashas, this alliance threatens to disintegrate and crumble away. Such a disintegration is inevitable under the circumstances ; it may be checked and delayed by diplomacy, but it must ultimately become a potential factor in the making of Balkan history. To Europe at large the rivalry and jealousies of Austria and Russia are the most prominent features of the permanent Balkan situation; to the Balkan States, their own local ambitions and their own local jealousies are much nearer. Montenegro is probably free from any inconvenient and unbridled . ambition ; she is a little self-contained mountain kingdom, proud of her unique traditions and desirous only of extending her boundaries over a few hundred square miles of adjacent territory. Servia is a more disturbing factor in the Balkan problem ; she may gain enormously from any .break-up of the Austrian Empire and cannot but hope that it may be her destiny to secure the leadership of the Balkan federation and make, her influence paramount on the Peninsula. The ambition and hopes of Servia, however, must be somewhat -vague and tentative; for the present she has nothing to gain by antagonising. Austria while by the waiting game her national interests may be greatly advantaged; Croatia and Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, are inhabited by kindred peoples arid if she can reach the . as a reward for her military efforts she may well be disposed to leave the rest to time and chance. Bulgaria and Greece, on the.other hand, are eager and adventurous bidders for' the immediate leadership of the Balkans. Ferdinand of Bulgaria is notoriously hopeful of restoring the ancient dignity of the old Bulgarian Empire, While the Greeks .are carried away by the firm conviction that they are the natural heirs to the unforgotten glories of Imperial Byzantium. Here we have the cause of the visible rift in Balkan co-opera-tion.

Greece has displayed in the present war a military prowess which has agreeably surprised the millions throughout civilisation who are enamoured of the name she bears, and grateful for the wonderful legacy bequeathed by the old Greek States to the Western world. It matters little that actual descendants of the heroes of Salamis and Marathon, of the immortal playwrights, sculptors, and philosophers who made their little country the most famous in the annals of humanity, arc not to be found among the Greeks of to-day. Mankind is not meticulous in ita sympathies nor pedantic in its generalisations. It is enough for most.men that Greeks" still live at Athens, and tread the streets of Corinth, that a Hellenic flag is being carried in triumph through Thessaly and Epirus, and is being shown in battle on the plains of Macedonia. The names still thrill the hearts of a Western world, which counts Greece as the cradle of political liberty, and the burial-place of the' most artistic and heroic of recorded civilisations. When we have said all this, however, we have not advanced a single argument why the Balkan peoples should accept unquestioningly the claims of modern Greece to an Imperial crown. The Bulgars, coming down from the north, very naturally desire to keep Greece locked away in the south-west, and to secure this Imperial crown for themselves. The Bulgarians have shown themselves indomitable fighters and patient workers. In a generation they have lifted their country from utter . subjugation by Turkish hordes to a position of military superiority which the successful holding by Turkey of Chataldja does not impugn. As between modern Bulgaria and modern Greece, the advantage would seem to lie,

on the side of the northern State, but the question would have to be settled decisively before the Balkans obtained peace 'f the Great Powers were disposed to accept such a decision as the last word in the Balkan situation. The fact is, however, that while Greece and Bulgaria are shortsightedly quarrelling with one another,, neither Austria nor Russia intends to have the Balkan situation thus easily settled. It is distinctly to the disadvantage of both Austria and Russia for a new power to arise in the Balkans. Whether Greece or Bulgaria becomes the head of the Balkan federation, with the ability to shake off all foreign domination and defy all foreign interference, is of • comparative insignificance to the shrewd statesmen of Vienna and St. Petersburg. They want no dominating State in the Balkans. They seek to keep the various States balanced against each other, so that at any opportune moment they may be able to serve their own interests and accomplish their own designs. The ill-feeling between Greece and Bulgaria serves the policy of both Vienna and St. Petersburg, none the less because it is not due to any accidental circumstances, • but to the unavoidable jealousy . caused by antagonistic and irreconcilable ambitions.