The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1916. CONFLICTING BALKAN INTERESTS.

Southland Times, Issue 17831, 7 September 1916, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1916. CONFLICTING BALKAN INTERESTS.

In regard to the Balkan situation generally the Allies are still faced toy difficulties which have embarrassed them considerably ever since war broke out. It was owing to these difficulties in no small measure that the Allies failed to bring Bulgaria into their camp, and if Bulgaria should make overtures for a separate peace or for a penitential alliance with the Entente Powers the same difficulties will crop up to hamper negotiations. On several grounds it Is a matter of the utmost •difficulty, if not of Impossibility, to reconcile the small Balkan nations with each other’’, The hate between the Bulgarians and.SCTbians is more intense than that between the Italians and the Austrians. The Greek loathes the Bulgarian as much as he detests the Turk, and Bulgaria also has old scores to settle with Roumania. Some of these small Balkan Powers would rather, almost in any circumstances, fight against each other than with each other, and the whole trouble is that the territorial division of the peninsula is all wrong. The Treaty of Bucharest made in 1913 after the Second Balkan war was not only no security for a stable peace but it was inevitably a strong provocative for another war. Had the great European war not occurred, nothing is more certain than that the Balkan States would again have been at each other’s throats before this time. Bulgaria, beaten and humiliated, had to take what Serbia, Roumania and Greece chose to give her. Roumania took Silistria, and Serbia and Greece divided Macedonia between them. Perhaps Bulgaria deserved no better treatment, but tbat aspect of the matter is quite beside the question. The fact that has to be recognised Is that the territorial divisions then made were wholly artificial and could not endure. Macedonia is more Bulgarian than Transylvania is Roumania or the Trentino Italian, and from the outset the aim of the Entente Powers was not to patch up a temporary arrangement that would serve the purpose of the moment but to bring about a readjustment in the Balkans that would give some promise of permanent peace and satisfaction. France and Britain laboured in Athens, Belgrade and Sofia to obtain mutual concessions and fix the Balkan boundaries in harmony with race, language and interest. Germany chose a simpler, if less Scrupulous way. She practically gave Bulgaria an open invitation to come in with the Central Powers and take what she wanted without regard for the rights or claims of anybody else. Germany’s appeal to selfish interests carried the day as against Britain’s appeal to the principles of justice, and the Bulgarian armies quickly over-ran Serbia. That Ferdinand, for all his cunning and astuteness, was shortsighted is now clearly seen, and as the sole considerations which weigh with him are firstly the aggrandisement of his own position, and secondly, as a corollary, the expansion of Bulgaria, he may now endeavour to gain a place of safety by betraying the Central Powers and joining the Allies. It is obvious, therefore, that when the Allies come to deal with Bulgaria they will be confronted by the same old difficulties, bitter racial

feuds and irreconcilable territorial claims. Who is to have Macedonia, for instance ? The Serbians, who have been the Allies’ friends from the outset, and the Greeks, who have never at least fought against them, or the Bulgarians, to whom it rightly belongs, though they are at present the Allies’ foes ? Serbia wants the Banat of Temesvar just as much as Roumania does. A settlement in the Balkans is no more easy of attainment now than it was twelve months ago. But Bulgaria has not the same claims on the Allies as she had before she took the fatal step of entering the enemy’s camp. Twelve months ago she might have put a price upon her assistance; now she may have to pay a price for peace. Despite, the aim - of the Allies to bring about a settlement in the Balkans on lines likely to be permanent, they must now consider Serbia and Greece before Bulgaria, but that very fact may make Bulgaria doubt whether her best policy is not to continue in the war since she can expect no reward for pulling out.