Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-11-01
An Anxious Period.

There was a period of tension: there
were moments when certain grand dukes
and their party We're thought to have Sc
cured the upper hand. section OF the
press lifted its well-trained voice. The
appeal to prejudice in favor of the south
ern Slavs was certain to be popular. ana
war would serve to distract the countless
restless spirits within European Russia
whose hopes for reasonable government
are so reasonable. BY an effort to free
the orthodox churchman" from the
Turk the world would be too impressed
to remember how Holy Russia cares for
the interests of Jew and Stundist, OF
Pole and Finn and Caucasian.
All these things We're said differently.
This is what they amounted To. Behind
all the spoken and written words remains
the truth that Constantinople is the
mecca of Eussia's statesmen. But the
car would not listen to the war makers,
those splendid fellows whose chests gilt
ter with decorations won in the drawing
rooms of Moscow and st. Petersburg.
and whose vast wealth was so greatly
increased by their dealings in stores and
munitions of war during the Russo-Japa-
nese campaign. The direct appeal had
failed, and Russias chauvinists chose
another path. They turned to the Balkan
states.
The clever old ruler of Montenegro.
whom SO many men admire. once re-
marked to a traveller who observed that
his country had no exports; You for
get my daughters. Prince Nicholas
married one to the King of Italy, another
to the Russian Grand Duke Peter. q
third to the Russian Grand Duke Nicho-
las. All three We're said by travellers and
diplomats to be brilliant women OF rare
accomplishment and influence Yet an
other daughter. now dead. was married
to King Peter of Servia. II will be seen
how Turkophobe policy finds its pivot
In Cettinje.
Montenegro's Complications.
Financially, Montenegro with its
trifing annual expenditure of about
s75O,OOO and its public debt of 1890
900. is in St. Petersburgs pocket. Its
magazine rifles and batteries of quick
firing guns are all presents" from the
car to the Gospodar, and are of quite
modern pattern. He who pays the piper
calls the tune, and nobody among the
informed observers had any doubts
about the origin Of the orders that
flung the MontenegrinS last week upon
the bloody trail to Scutari 1t is I'm
keeping with the Russian tradition to
be a party to a European conference
convened in the interests of peace, and
to complete her own arrangements out
side the conference to make peace i'm
possible
Then. again. why did the Turco-
italian negotiations hang fire at the
last moment? Those who wished most
for Balkan conflagration desired least
to see Italy with united hands. and the
poor company of warshiDs that enjoys
the title of Turkish fleet free to leave
the shelter of the forts along the Bos-
phorus. Russia and Montenegro Were
both speaking in Rome last week, and
with authority. AS soon as the war
really started, peace with Italy did
not matter to st. Petersburg. Indeed.
1t is better in some regards. for Austria
will now have to be more careful. Aus
tro-Italian hatred cloaked rather than
checked by the triple alliance, may Yet
blaze to Russia's advantage.
This simple statement of aspect or
the Balkan crisis may seem to be little
more than expression of i'll will to
Russia, but a careful perusal of the au
thoritative Austrian newspapers even
through the medium Of translated ex-
tracts, and attention to the statements
made during the last few days by Count
Berchtold, the successor of Graf Won
Aehrenthal, who brought off the coup i'm
Bosnia-Herzegovina four years ago. will
dispel suspicious. He sounded a warning
note some weeks ago. when he knew
trouble was coming. He says now, in the
polite language of diplomacy, that Aus
tria will fight to the death to protect her
interests Austria is perfectly aware
that a Russian move lies behind this
Balkan business unless the car can
prove himself the most powerful OF Nv
ing Romanoffs. which is tantamount To
saying that We shall have peace IL water
will run up hill.