EASTERN EUROPE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14219, 17 February 1914, Page 5

EASTERN EUROPE.

the powers and turkey. THE PORTE’S REPLY. Tree* Association—Telegraph—Copyright. CONSTANTINOPLE, February 16. The Porte, in reply to the Powers, regarding the Aegean Islands, regrets that the Powers have given inadequate consideration to the Empire’s vital needs in connection with islands adjacent •to the Dardanelles, and failure to devise a solution which 'might have avoided all serious difficulties. CREEK PREMIER’S VIEWS. t ATHENS, February 16. _M. Venezelos, in giving his impressions gathered while on a European tour, anticipated" a modification in the frontier of Epirus. He added that a close understanding was needed between Greece, Houmania and Servia to assure the maintenance of the status quo in the Balkans and make Graeco-Turkish complications impossible.

GATHERING STORM. SNARLING BALKAN STATES ZABERN AND AUSTRALIA.

(Sydney Sun’s Special Representative.) . LONDON, January 9. The cloud which is no bigger than a min’s hand is again gathering on the horizon of Eastern Europe. Diplomats are pleased because, like buzzards, international embroglios provide them with something to do. But the men who are most responsible for the government of the old world are very gravely perturbed. They see a chance of all the bloodless victories which were gained last year being swept away by another conflict in the Balkans, from which it might be impossible for the Great Powers to hold aloof.

Peace treaties have been signed between the parlies to the recent brutal fighting in Eastern - Europe, but they are only patchwork affairs. No Chancellery believes that they will last beyond next summer. Already Turkey has startled the Balkan Confederation by purchasing a magnificent battleship, which gives her naval predominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. She acted slimlv, as is her wont. Money was borrowed from France to reorganise the Ottoman finances and to promote settlement. France is politically against Turkey, but her financiers are not bothered by . politics or creed. They lent the money because they wore promised a high rate of interest, and expected that it would be employed in developmental, constructional work. Their consternation was tremendous when they heard that part of it had been used to ■ purchase a warship. Turkey could have taken no more provocative course. Greece has responded bv bargaining with a South American republic for a battleship of equal, dimensions in order to maintain her naval pre-eminence in the Aegean.

SOUTH AMERICAN BATTLESHIPS. The alacrity displayed by South American States in turning over superDreadnoughts still on the slips to the vengeful peoples of the Balkans has dismayed Europe. The bargaining has Opehod up a neb" danger in armament rivalry. The balance of power in the Mediterranenan may be altered at any moment by one of the Great Powers secretly or openly acquiring the fleet possessed bv Chili or Brazil. Several years ago they actually commenced an insane competition on these lines. Germany was surreptitiously negotiating With- Brazil, when Lord Selborne, then at the head of the Admiralty, heard of her more while at a private dinner. Making bis excuses to his host, he hurried away. An impromptu Cabinet meeting was held, and Great Britain bought the warship under Germany’s very nose. If Turkey and Greece can build up fleets in this way with money raised in Western Europe for other purposes, it is patent that the means to do ill deeds will soon make ill deeds done. The vindictive hatred which exists between the two countries rather curiously involves Germany. England, and France. Turkey, wishing to re-model and re-form lier army, imported expertsfrom the Fatherland. Germany, noting the unrest which spread through India when tile Moslems thought that the British were persecuting their co-reli-gionists in_ Turkey, was only too'glad to provide this military mission. Greece during the war relied upon French artillery, and since the peace was signed she has stiffened up her army by engaging more French instructors, while she has placed her navy in the entire control of a British Rear-Admiral. The three countries concerned in this quaint duel are disposed to feel that their national honour is engaged in the contest for theoretic efficiency, which must inevitably lead to a conflict onlv to be solved by supremacy. And apart from this bottle holding by the Big Powers, there are secret arrangements of offence and defence between the recent belligerents which must incline the balance of probabilities towards war.

STRUGGLE OF GIANTS. As it is. the Entente and the Alliance are wrestling with all their strength over A trifle like the southern borders of Albania. They were able to fix the boundaries of the new kingdom in accordance with the fortunes of war without much fuss. They were working then with a genuine desire to promote the common weal. But when Germany gained the upper hand in Turkey the members of the Entente felt that they had been slipped up by the Kaiser, and began to dispute greatly about what would otherwise have been trifles. It seems ridiculous that this month relations between those two tremendous combinations have been more strained then they were during the whole of 1913. and all because each has felt it necessary to stick om to the uttermost for her own notions of the delimitation of Albania. Turkey, entering Adrianople. refused to evacuate. Tlie Entente demanded that she should reties V> her smaller territory. The Alliance quietly egged Turkey on to flouting the Entente. Then Greece, occupying the two chief islands in the Aegean Sea, refusing to withdraw from them. Germany, menacing her with her mailed fist, said that Greece must leave them. The Entente, ranging it"self behind Greece, told her to dare Germany. She did. Alliance and Entente, having been checkmated in turn, are now striving desperately for a win in Albania.

ZABERN AND AUSTRALIA. Zabern is only symptomatic of the tension which exists in Europe. It is ridiculous to think that in ordinary circumstances even the Kaiser’s armoured lee-ions would think of unlimbering artillery in a small garrison town because several forward schoqlhovs pulled faces at young subalterns.' Behind Zabern and its comic opera court-martial, its

Gilbcrtian incident, and its acrid humour, lies the clash of racial animosity in Alsace-Lorraine. Just as a speck of dust in the carburetter will cause a motor to back-fire alarmingly, so a child, grinning at a soldier in Zabern. was able to reveal to the whole world how a trumpery event might lead at any moment to a blaze which all Europe might fail to put out. Small as that storm-cloud is, too, its shadow has impinged upon Australia. The Federal Government wishes to obtain an extremely large supply of Service rifles with the least delay. Its orders are bing filled bv the War Office from the army factories, but the authorities in Australia have grumbled that the indent could be shipped much faster if flic AVar Office would only draw upon stock. That is where Albania and Zabern touch the Commonwealth. The British army and the British navy are to all intents and purposes on a fighting.footing. The War Office maintains a standard supply of rifles sufficient to meet anv national emergency. It could not at this date trench upon its reserves without taking a risk for which in the event of sudden European trouble there would be no excuse. Australia is coivoquently very vita 11 v interested in the wordless" babble which has increased the discord between the Groat Powers.