Norwich bulletin., 1913-05-01

King Nicholas and his mountaineers had few if any siege guns big enough to make the fort untenable, and while the Serviane have recently come to help them little has been said of their bringing heavy artillery. Meantime as the days have wragged on. and the fort. holds out the Montenegrins have become desperate. From the beg1Ilig few in number and poor4in purse they have seen their nuMbeE steadily Ter duced and their sources sdwind1ing while the surrender of Janina. in southern Albania to the Greeks and Adrianople in grhraoe to: the ServianS and 4RulgaT1anSg with the inactivity of the Allies at Tchatalja and GalIipoIi, have left the Montenegrin5 and the de- lenders of Scutari alone eLnbattled- the continuation of marvellous six months siege and defence-tn a death grapple, with the honors of war thus far equal. And as if to enshrine this combat among the future memories of mankind we have at sScutari the Ascent of the Two Hundred-com- parable only to the famous charge of the six hundred at Balaklava-In which bombs in hand, the Montene- grin heroes climbed the steeps cutting the barbed wire entanglments which barred their way and eoiled about them like serpents about the Laocoon and wrecked their own destruction with that of the enemy outer works.
 Life or Death For King Nicholas.
 It is not a pleasant spectacle for loverSsof peace and concord: Scutari and Montenegro writhfng in a death struggle on the shores Of one of the loveliest lakes in Europe, while only score of miles away battkeships of the Christian Powers-great for the moment only in name-are appearing
 to snatch from Montenegro the fruits
 of the Impending victory. These do minions,'' says King Nicholas, belong ed to our ancestors but for three cent uries they have been held by the Turks Scutari was ours and: the
 Turks took it from us. My subjects
 must regain that fertile land if we are to go on living. It is a matter of life
 and death for, us. We mean to keep the land. we have retaken during the
 war. We mean to take Scutari, which is the key to that land, and we mean 1 to keep it." The attempt to- rob Montenegro of Scutari for the artificial vitality of a newborn State incapable
 of maintaining itself by it's own | strength is the indignant character i ization applied by the Foreign Office
 of Montenegro to the proposed robbery.
 And again, .@To create Albania Monte negro is strangled."
 The Turks Remarkable Stand
 This is the attitude of the besiegers, And how about the besieged?, These
 are Turks, brave and skilful and at 1 their best as soldiers behind ramparte
 and barbed wire. To those of Scutari great praise must be given from, the
 military standpoint, and the name of 1 its commander. Hassan Riaz Pasha will be placed on the military roll; of l honor beside those of the commanders of Janina and Adrianople. Turkish officials are said to be as bad as any | in the world, lethargic, fond of graft | a 0ria QJ (1f Uyir 1iT1O i through lies and craft. On the other l hand, if only the Turkish soldier could add to his dogged determination and l his indifference to death, push and l forethought, he would be the most 1 formidable of soldiers. It was the lack l the Turks to make so poor a show | ing in the beginning of the war, while l the former explain why it has been al- most impossible to dislodge them from
 Janina, Adrianople and Scutari. He is
 consummate in all military plans
 which require sitting still. Set him behind Notifications, and any army iI
 the world will be hard put to it to dis
 lodge him." says a wise Englishman Like Our War With Spain
 l But what of the interference of the 1 Powers in this deadly combat?. We
 know why Austria Hungary is eager 1 for the so-cailed autonomous Alban- l fa' for she would find in such an az | glomeration of half civilized tribes ar easy thoroughfare towards the,A Aegean | and side by side with Austria Hung | ary, Teutonic Germany and Latin 1 Italy think that they must stand | against Russia and Pan- Slavism. But l why Is Great Britain also threatening | these remote and barren shores and
 defending half-civilized Scutari and 1 the unspeakable Turk against the
 hardy Christians of Montenegro? Sir
 Edward Grey tells us that it is tc
 avoid a general European war and re- 1 minds us that the Turks too are fight
 ing for their homes, their territory 1 But he omits to mention that this war
 was begun by the Allies solely to ex- pei from their neighborhood the Turk
 whose rule and proximity had become i into1erable. And very much as the United States went to war with Spair
 because they could no longer tolerate i its misrule in Cuba. so the Allies have
 sought to stop anarchy and atrocity
 in Albania, Macedonia and Thraoe by driving out the Turk This is noi
 primarily a question of territory-it is
 a question of racial antipathy and o1
 modern civilization sweeping aside l misrule and savagery.