OUTLET TO SEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20292, 28 December 1927, Page 11

OUTLET TO SEA.

JUGO-SLAVIA BEQUEST. In order to relieve a situation wlucil she considers unfavourable to .her viU< interests, Jugo-Slavia has been trying or a long time to secure a free .a-nd permanent outlet fcjirough the Aegean port of Salonika, one of the principal cities ot Greece (states the Christian Science Monitor). This is the port that AustriaHungary once coveted, and to secure which she pushed so insistently to tno south that she provoked the conflict which was the beginning of the World War. Jugo-Slavia also would be happy to possess Salonika, which lies less than 40 miies from her southern border, but sine© that is out of the question she has been trying to get to the port by diplomatic methods. She was sought principally for three things—first, a Jugo-Slavia zone in Salonika entirely under her control and large enough to permit of an extensive commerce. Secondly, she has wanted to get control of the line of railroad from the Jugo-Slav border at Ghevghell to Salonika, which is a vital part of the main line from Athens through Belgrade into Central Europe. Incidentally Jugoslavia has brought up a large part of the shares of that road iust as England bought the shares of the Suez Canal. Thirdly, Jugo-Slavia has endeavoured to acquire certain coastwise shipping rights. Her aim has been commercial as well as the defence of the State. GREEK OPPOSITION. Naturally the Greeks do not look with favour on any of these pretensions. seems to them to be one of the many cases ip history where one’s friends axe much less dangerous than one’s enemies. How much is an alliance with Jugo-Slavia against Italy or Bulgaria or Turkey worth if that alliance jeopardises Greece’s second port, a vital railroad, and her sovereignty over her own territory ? However, a moments of weakness States are amenable to insistent diplomatic demands, and in 1923 after Greece’s" catastrophic defeat in Asia Minor, she was inducr J to give Jugo-Slavia a Jugo-Slav zone in Salonika. That State, however, did not cease to press its requests for further concessions, and more or less desultory negotiations were carried on for some time, until Che Government of General Pangalos in the fall of 1925 acceded to all of Jugoslavia’s request. According to the conventions signed at that time not only a larger one given in the port but litlT railroad from Jugo-Slavia to the sea coast was to be controlled by a committee ot five —two representatives of each of the States concerned and one from France. Jugo-Slavia counted on the French delegate deciding all the vital questions which might arise in connection with the railroad in her favour. But not long after that General Pangs los was overthrown by General Condylis, and a new Government formed, which at once rejected the conventions. Thev were finally disposed of a few weeks ago', when the Greek Parliament also rejected them. The Greeks fear that it might be another case of the camel being allowed to put its head into the Arab’* tent. The other State, on the other hand, points out that Salonika cannot Thrive without Jugo-Slav commerce. At present the matter stands just where it was in 1923, but it is certain that the Government at Belgrade will take advantage of every opportunity to renew and continue the negotiations. That is one of the permanent and fundamental aims of Jugo-clavia’s foreign policy.