New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-09
The New Crisis in the Near
East.

details to obscure the greater fact. Thus
the Cabinet crisis in Athens, the mobiliza-
ton orders in Sofia. the unrest in Rome
and Bucharest, are all but incidental
manifestations of the single major incl
dent. After five centuries the whole
face of the Eastern Question is changing
10 the tune of the reveille Of the allied
guns on the forts of the Dardanelles.
Viewed from the Western standpoint,
the Great War is q contest between rival
nations, one more manifestation Of Ieal-
ousies as old as modern history, jealous
les between peoples who have contended
for many centuries for European su-
premacy. But viewed from the Balkans
It is a final step in the liberation Of races
which Turkish tyranny and European
rivalries have held in subsection for more
than five centuries. It is war of indie
pendence as unmistakable as any in hu-
man history.
, A generation ago Europe, sitting about
the table at the Congress of Berlin, con-
demned the Balkans to misery, to agony,
TO servitude. The sentence of death was
passed because the ambitions Of the
British. the Austrians and the Russians
conficted. Millions who had fought for
liberty, who had deserved it, millions of
Serbs, of Greeks and of Bulgars, were
given over 10 the Turks, lest Russia or
Austria might unduly profit by their lib
erty, or England's pathway to her Indian
Empire be imperilled by Russian posses
sion Of Constantinople.
Three years ago the Balkans broke
from their servitude, and once more, with
the same courage, devotion and with new
efficiency. asserted their national rights.
On the battlefelds of Lule Burgas and
Kumanovo. on the hills above Salonica,
these three races earned liberty.
But Europe, immobilzed by rivalries
while the first Balkan war progressed,
found refuge in intrigue and chicane
when the war was over. The Balkan Con
federacv was shattered TO suit Austrian
purposes. The Turk came back to
Adrianople. Among the allies of yes
terday there was created hatred more
bitter than that each had felt toward
the Turk.
In 1918. as at Berlin, Europe, to serve
its selfish ends, again passed sentence
upon the millions of the Balkans. But
this time the sentence did not run. The
answer to Austrian intrigue was made at
Saraievo, and the assassination of the
Archduke was the signal to bring down
upon Europe north of the Danube all the
agonies it had visited upon the Serb, the
Bulgar and the Greek.
To-day the fleets which are opening the
road to Constantinople are also clearing
the road for q new, better Europe, since
e they are making possible the liberation
of the races of the Balkans, whose misery
, has been like an infected limb slowly
j generating poison, which in the end was
disseminated through the whole Euro
pean body.
If Bulgaria, Greece, Servia, Rumania
can now compose their jealousies; if to
Bulgaria can be returned the lost children
of the provinces taken by Servia and Ru-
mania; if the old Balkan Alliance can be
restored, under the guidance Of the sea
powers, there may vanish from the chan
celleries of Europe the greatest of all
international problems.
Yet there can be no mistaking the
wider aspect of the whole question.
The Turk is about to surrender the last
of his stolen lands. He is going back to
Asia. But the Eastern Question does not
begin at the Danube. The liberation of
the Greek and the Bulgar does not close
the fight of the Serb and the Rumanian
in Austria for liberty. 1t does not dis
pose of the question of the Czech, the
Slovall and the Slovene.
Rather, it seems accurate TO say that
with the going of the Turk the Eastern
Question is removed to Austria. What
the Allies are seeking TO accomplish at
the Dardanelles Is not merely the over
throw of Turkish power in Europe. with
the Incidental liberation of the Balkan
peoples, but the destruction Of the foun-
dation of the Hapsburg power, of the
Central European Alliance.
The fall of Constantnople will be a
fact only less considerable for the Aus
trian than for the Turk. 1t will provide
the chance for settling the quarrels be-
tween the Balkan States, and this settle
ment will release Rumania and Greece
who can thereafter join their Servian
ally on the Hungarian frontier.
Not less important must be the effect
of allied success upon Italy. Already her
people are impatient at the delay which
has kept Italian troops out of the Tren-
tino and Italian warships from Trieste
and the Venetian cities Of Dalmatia.
Italy, Rumania, Servia, are thus longing
for the lands inhabited by the people of
their own race, but ruled by the Haps-