The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-07
The Powers and the War Problem.

iiNhhO.
The Powers and the War Problem.
Behind the assumed sternness of Mr..
BALFoUR's reply to Sir WILLIAM HAIR.
COURTS question in the British Parliament
on Monday regarding the position in the
East, it is not difficult to detect the disap.
pointment of Lord S~ALIsBuRY's Govern.
ment at the course events are taking. The
skilful m~an9uvring that was intended to
lead up to the occupation of Crete by either
British or italian troops appears to have
entirely failed. A proposal that England
should undertake alone the occupation Of
Crete with 10000 men was rejected by the
other powers with very little hesitation {;
and the italian Government is not in a condi.
tion to undertake what would degenerate
into a war of conquest and determination.
The disasters in Abyssinia and the result of
the recent elections have provided Mr.. Ru-
DINI's Ministry with ample occupation at
home, while the disorganization that the
emigration of masses Of the able bodied
population to foreign countries is causing
in the army does not permit Italy to enter
on any more uncertain adventures at
present. 1t may also be said of Austria
that the late elections there tend to the
maintenance of peace, by the necessity the
Government is placed under Of studying the
domestic questions evolved from the last
appeal to the ballot box.
Both Governments are under bonds to
their own people to avoid war, for the sue
cesses Of the Socialists in Italy, even with
the restricted suffrage exercised in
that country md fhp yaruhalp,t n~ Iafaot
Of the Liberal party in Austria which
opposed the reforms that have destroyed it,
compel the two Governments to give their
best attention to their own affairs and
avoid foreign entanglements as much as
possible. Indirectly the Italian and Aus.
trian people have become the allies of
Greece and the other smaller States of the
Balkan peninsula and the valley of the
Danube, and nave thus contributed to
strengthen the hands OF King GEORGE in
his unequal contest with the powers.
The English Government, with all it's dis
play of overwhelming naval force, is also
itself held in check by many circumstances.
To begin with Egypt: the intimate rela-
ton that the supplies of large quantities
of arms and ammunition sent from Abys-
sinia to Khartoum show to exist between
MENELIK mt the Khalifa changes the
conditions of the campaign on the upper
Nile. Then the bold and united front
presented to the buccaneering policy in
South Africa, the responsibility for
which may be about equally divided
between the Colonial Office in London
and the chartered South African Company,
by the Transvaal, the Orange Free State,
and the majority of the Dutch OF Cape
Colony, calls for a pause In that di-
rection. In India the increasing dis
order OF the finances, commerce, and agri-
culture of the country through the
famine, and the reAssertion OF his author
ity by the Ameer of Afghanistan over Ger.
tain frontier districts, coupled with the de.
spatch of n Russian mission to Cabul, add
to the many other reasons why England
should keep the peace, however willing
Lord SALISBURY might be to take advan-
tage of any conflict hat can arise between
others of the European powers.
All that is needed TO prevent any breach
of the peace is the division of the Turkish
empire in just proportion to the claims and
rights of It's nationalities and it's civilized
inhabitants. There is no need for any diff
Guilty about the partition of European
Turkey apart from the territory on the
north side OF the Bosporus, the Marmora,
and the Dardanelles. The rightful heirs to
Macedonia are oil the spot in the States OF
Servia, Bulgaria, and Greece. The geo.
graphical and clinical limits of the rights
of each are well defined, and the northern
and southern Albanians, who differ much
in type and character, could easily be accom-
modatcd with n rule suited to their condi-
ton assuming of course that the powers
were as much In earnest az they pretend to
be for the maintenance Of peace and the
interest of the peoples concerned.
Constantinople, with a certain limit of
territory on either side OF the waterway be-
tween the Black Sea and the 4Sgean, might
be erected into a free city and State under
the guarantee of all Europe, and the fortih-
cations RACED and the guns removed. Ar.
menia, properly defined, might be erected
an autonomous province under Euro.
pean guarantee, with Russia as mandatory
and, II 1t were considered necessary to con-
tinue the existence of an Ottoman State,
the territory remaining in Asia Minor
might be left to the Sultan, who would be
free to establish his new capital at Broussa,
Angora, or anywhere else, with such a su-
pervision by the European powers as would
end at once and for all time such speotacles