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Otago Daily Times, Issue 16545, 19 November 1915, Page 4

AN ALLIES' WAR COUNCIL. The meeting in Paris of a joint War Council, representative of Great Brita.m and France, marks, it may be conjectured, the beginning of a closer co-ordination than has previously been secured between the military operations of the Allied Powers. There have been many visits during recent months by Cabinet Ministers from Great Britain to France and by Cabinet Ministers from France to Great Britain. The circumstance has not been such as to cause any surprise. The responsible statesmen of Great Britain and France doubtless appreciate the value of personal intercourse and of frank exchange of views. They realise, as every business man does, that an hour's talk with a person, with whom important negotiations are in progress, is likely to be productive of more useful results than could bo achieved by reams of correspondence. Nevertheless, the simultaneous visit to France of the four British statesmen who control respectively the Ministries of War, the Admiralty, Foreign Affairs, and Murd-

tions must possess a significance greatly exceeding thafc which is attached to the visits of individual Ministers. Tho four British Ministers who have this week gone to Paris are not all members of the reconstructed War Council, which has absorbed the Imperial Defonco Committee in Great Britain, and tho presence of Sir Edward Grey .at the conference suggests that the subjects for discussion include questions of groat diplomatic, as well as of high military, importance. That the situation in the Balkans, where serious consequences depend upon the efforts of the diplomatists, has specially claimed the consideration of the Anglo-French Council is certain. The gravity of the position does not admit of question. For the time'-, being there are serious apprehensions concerning the part which Greece will yet play in the war. Dr Dillon, whose judgment respecting probable developments in the Balkans is not to be lightly disregarded, warns us not to count too confidently upon the maintenance by Greece of an attitude of friendly neutrality. He suggests, indeed, that the rulers of the country are capable of the grossest acts of perfidy, as may readily be credited after their repudiation of the obligations to which the Grseco-Serbian treaty committed them upon the invasion of Serbia by Bulgaria. It may be a mistake,. however, to suppose that the Greek people are not themselves a factor to be reckoned with in the determination of the policy which their country is to pursue. The warmth of the reception that was accorded to M. Cochin, a member of the French Government, upon his arrival in Athens,on a mission to the Greek Cabinet was at least indicative of the existence of a strong popular feeling in favour of the Allies. Yet there may be a danger of exaggerating the im--I'ortance of sentimental considerations. We have seen enough in this war to discount their importance,—at all events, in the Balkans. At the same time the Greek people cannot be indifferent to the effect which participation in the war in opposition to the Entente Powers would have Upon their country. Completely exposed to attack, as she is, by the powerful navies of the Allies, it would be a singularly hazardous thing on her part to place herself in open hostility to them. Yet the Allies must be prepared for every emergency, however unexpected it may be. For this reason the situation in the Balkans must be a matter of very serious consideration by the conference in France'.