The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-06
YALE AU I THORl TY SAYS WAR IS OF
 LONG STANDING

New Haven, Aug. 6-The real mean ing of the present European situation, according to Professor Arthur M Wheeler professor emeritus of history at Yale. widely known as an authority on the history of Europe since the French Revolution and as a scholar of great ability, is that it is a, struggle between the Christian nations of Europe over the spoil of the heathen Turk The division of the spoil is the fundamental issue at stake, although there are other issues which are just as important. The nations of Europe have been brooding over the. question for a. hundred years, Professor Wheel CT says, but up to- the present they have kept from a. great war because they felt that it would be a disgrace to fall upon each other over the SD oil
 Seated on the veranda. Of his sum naer home, overlooking the sound at 1 Grove Beach. Professor Wheeler yes terdayS gave to newspaper rep lresentative an exposition of the pres l ent European situation, and the his torica1 events. reaching back to the 1 time of Napoleon, which have. in his opinion, led up to it with an almost fatalistie surety. The present war is l not the end, he says; the be1Iigerent nations will fight until they are worn l out; will sign. a treaty of peace which l will be but a compromise, will rest for | a E. 1 then will go at each others throats l again Only when one of the nations goes absolutely to pieces and the others are able to arrive at some mu- tual1y satisfactory division will peace icome in Europe
 l As seen by Professor Wheeler the parts being played by the nations of Europe in the great drama which is l about to be enacted and which has been in the process of writing for the last hundred years, are as follows:
 1 For a hundred years the Balkan 1 peninsula has been the storm center l of Europe. When the states son the peninsula obtained their freedom l they were allowed to keep it by the I powers of Europe. because the latter
 were each jealous of the other They I even assisted Greece in obtaining her
 freedom in 1920. Each of the powers l kept a close watch on the others tc see that none stepped in and disturb
 ed the balance of power between the i nations of Europe by taking some
 territory away from the states on the
 peninsula If such an attempt had
 been made it would have been inpossi ble for the states to defend thenselves l because of their size and because 0. I the fact that they were not politically
 far enough advanced to form a union
 The natural solution would be a con 1 federacy with Greece at the head
 but the Slavs of the states would pre- T fer Turkish to Grecian rule.
 The present war is but another ex-
 ample of the eastern question: The
 occasion of the. conflict was the as
 sassination of the Archduke Ferdi- I nand, but it was not the cause. Wher
 Austria sent her uItirnatum to Servia
 Russia stepped in to prevent Austria
 from crushing Servia If she had no
 done this, the balance of power would
 have been disturbed: And Russia her
 self had had her eyes turned in tht
 direction of the peninsula for a mum
 Der of years; at present she has nc
 seaport and she wants one to the
 south She tried to obtain Censtanti- nopIe in the Crimean war and failed
 she tried to the east and failed, and 1 she is bottled up. The Baltic ports are frozen in the winter, as is also 1 Vladivostoclz. The only chance fol