Arizona republican., 1903-01-18
New Phases of an Old Question.

i 4NS" hGoNo OA dh Ohd OdCStlOh. ! London correspondents of American
 newspapers have so often predicted
 another clash between Russia and Tur-
 key and a general European war as the
 result, that the reading public is no
 longer inclined to take alarm at the repeated cries of wolf" However. accounts from Russia describe popular feeling in that country as stirred up by the reports of the sufferings of the people of Macedonia, and that the gov ernment is beginning to feel the same pressure that drove the emperor Alex ander II into the war of 1S77 Now, as then official Russia, and for cogent req sons, is unwilling. to have recourse to arms, and has therefore associated it. self with Austria to bring their joint influence to bear at Constantinople to
 try to induce the. sultan in his own in
 terest to remedy the ills affecting the long g-suffering Macedonians. All over
 Russia the Slavonic Benevolent society
 is making appeals to the people and receiving large sums of money for the relief of Macedonian refugees in Bull
 garia, and the Russian government is
 being urged to send the Red Cross
 agents into Macedonia to render aid to
 the sufferers on the spot. It all de-
 bends upon the sultan whether this
 agitation will have a serious issue and
 take things out of the channel of di-
 DlOmacV a an carly dat te
 The present is not the moment, how
 ever, that the Russian government
 would choose to begin warlike opera
 tions. even were it so disposed. The Black sea harbors are encountered with ice, and for at least two months more the Balkan country is unfavorabie for campaigning; there is, therefore, still
 time for the griefs of the Macedonians
 to be settled peaceably. But associated with them is a matter which in any case is likely to give rise to some dis
 turbance in the politics of southeast ern Europe.
 It is no longer a secret that the Rus sian government considers the time has come to release itself from the obliga- tions concerning it's Black sea fleet inn posed by the treaty of Paris in 1856 after the Crimean war. The clause binding Russia not to construct war fleet in the Black sea was denounced immediately after the Franco German war, but that forbidding Russian war ships to enter into it from or pass out of it to the Mediterranean re- mained. It is now intended to get rid of this last restriction, and the formal demand on the sultan for permission for four torpedo boats to pass from the Mediterranean to the Black sea is the first step in raising the question.
 The British government, being nat urally interested in preventing a dis turbance of the equilibrium in the Med iterranean, has protested vigorously at Constantinople but up to the present has not been supported by any of the other powers signatory of the treaty of Paris. Under the circumstances. therefore, there does not appear any reason to apprehend disturbance of the peace of Europe over the military as pect of the question of the Dardanelles; if any trouble should occur it would be in the event of an armed interven- tion by Austria and Russia to put an end to the disorder in Macedonia and Albania. The other question is a mat ter for diplomatic arrangement unless the British government sees fit to fol- low up its protest single handed and oppose the passage of Russian war ships through the Dardanelles either way, by force. But that is hardly probable, for no one government un- supported would venture lightly to break the peace when there are so many powerful reasons for maintaining it. It should not be difficult to find other means for redressing the balance 1 of power in the Mediterranean which | would be deranged by the new condi- tions.