Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-29
OUTBREAK AGAINST THE
TURKS.

The sudden breaking out of the war
in the Balkans in October made all the
diplomatic forecasts. of the preceding
weeks ridiculous. After an unusually
laborious effort in coming to an arrange
ment the representatives Of the great
powers agreed on a collective note to
Turkey and to the so-called Balkan fed
| Grafton telling the former that it must
conduct itself properly and the latter
that no uprising would be countenanced.
Before that note Of warning could be de-
livered King Nicholas of Montenegro
broke over the frontier. the Bulgarian
army was massed within striking dis
lance of Adrianople, the Servians were
moving to the aid of the BulgarS and
the Greeks We're Smelling Turkish forts.
When Turkey received the note of the
powers she declined to accept the advice
and the Balkan governments paid little
attention to it, War had begun and it
was not merely nominal. but planned: or
ganlZed and vigorous. Within fort
night the Moslems had suffered heavy de-
feat in the northwest from King Nfcho-
las troops. led by the old king and two
of his sons; in the southwest from the
Greeks. and in the east around Adrano-
pie. Even COnStantinOple was threatened
seriously and the very existence of Otto
man rule in Europe was put in peril.
Great Powers Stood Aghast.
Meanwhile the great powers stood
aghast and apparently at sea as to the
proper course to pursue. For nearly a
generation they had been afraid to make
a move unitedly for fear that one or
more of them would profit by it. The
two powers most intimately connected
with the business have been Austria and
Russia. Germany has stood behind the
former and France has sided with the lat
ter The demands made by the Balkan
reasonable and could have been made
the basis of a settlement All they asked
was autonomy for the European prov
inces of Turkey. with Christian govern
ors and equal rights. The Balkan states
were not in a mood to wait long for a
reply to their demands They had been
victims to the uncertainty of diplomacy
too frequently to trust their business to
others. This time they decided to pre-
sent their demands in person This bold
dash and precisian. and numerous bat
ties We're fought in all of which the
Turks Jared badly, although the loss of
life on both sides was excessive. By
the middle of November the victorious
Bulgars We're at the gates of CONSTANT
nople. in which the dreaded cholera had
made its appearance in a virulent form,
and the porte was asking for an armis-
tice and inquiring about conditions of
peace.
End of Turko- Italian War.
The war between Italy and Turkey,
which was brought to an end in October,
proved to be something quite different
from the expectation of the Italian states
men and officers while they were prepar-
ing for what they regarded as the easy
conquest Of Tripolitania and the sur
rounding territory. Instead of being "a
wholesome exercise for the army and
navy. as 1t was denominated at the
time, 1t turned out to be a serious cam
paign Of more than a years duration.
costly in money. men and effort. With
an army of more than 10000 men, all
we'll equipped. with fleet of aeroplanes
and dirigibles. and backed by a strong
navy. the Italians found that it was not
so easy to bring the porte to terms as
it had anticipated. Finding it impos-
sible to accomplish the easy result ex-
the Arabs decisively, Italy attempted to
end the war in various ways-by bonn
harding Beirut. by helping the Yemen
rebels against Turkish rule, by attacking
the MISUNDERSTANDING thus to compel
Europe to interfere-and finally by STIR
ring up the warlike Balkans
Italy was willing to make concessions
in order to make annexation of Tripoli a
permanent thing, such as indemnity, re-
turn of the captured islands and the
granting of religious rights in the con-
quered territory, and In October an agree
ment was reached and the war was de-
clared at an end Thus, with the annexa-
ton of Tripoli by Italy the partition of
Africa by Europe is practically complete.