The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-04
ALIENS PLANNING NEW TRANS-EUROPE
 ROUTE ID ORIENT
This Will Follow Natural Lines as Drawn Ages Ago by Ancients in Mi
 gratiOns

Athens, October 1o.-(Correspondence of the Associated Press.)-A new trans-Eu- ropean route. linking London and Paris with the Balkans and the Orient. as d counter-project to the German plan link ing Berlin, Vienna and Budapest with Constantinople and the Orient, Is one of the Associated Press.)-A new rans-Eu- now being worked out in much detail. It is 8 leading feature of the plan to re- habilitate Servia by making her the nu- cleus of a great confederation of the Bal kan Slsv communities-Serbs, Greats, Slovenes, Dalmatians Bosnians-for the natural highway of the entente powers to the orient lies directly through this pro posed new southern Slav state.
 It remained for the present war to make plain for the first time that the natural route across the Balkans to the Orient was not the one chosen by the Germans, running north and south, but the old route used from time immemorial running almost east and west across this country of the Serbs Greats and Slo- venes. The German route has been laid out purely for purposes of imperial ex- pansion, linking Vienna Budapest Belgrade-Sofia- ia-Constantinople and the orient beyond. But the experience or the Balkans had shown this was entirely an artificial route. which ignored the formation of the country and that the natural highway was the same today as it was ages ago, when used by the an cients.
 This natural route ia as clearly de- fined today as 1t was In the old migra- tions. But It has the added advantage today that it is link, or extension,
 1rro tV1D "a the entente countries of western Eu- rope, and making 8 continuous chain from London, Paris and Milan, the great industrial center of Italy. across the Balkans to Belgrade, Nish. Saloniki and Constantinople. It Is the Balkan link, however, which forms the entirely new feature of this route, with advantages contrasting sharply with the artificial north and south route.
 The old route, now revived as the natural channel of entente expansion. follows the course of the River Save. which forms a great valley running across the Balkans, with a level and almost stralghtway from 8 point near Gorigia, where the Italians are now fighting, eastward to Belgrade, where the River Save joins the Danube. The pass through the Julian Alps at the head of the Adriatic is made along the River Wippach. Thus natural and level route J55 IOEInSd kEOTu tne eASLSln AIOilLlcl Oi Italy due east. across the Balkans to Belgrade, and thence south to Nish, Sa- loniki and Constantinople.
 Railroads run along most of this route, but there are several breaks In the Bal kan stretch and there has never been any effort to unite them Into one trans European route Now, however that the entente powers of western Europe feet the spur of Germany's systematic exten- sion through the Balkans to the orient, terpoise to the German plan, has just been realized.
 With the links completed and brought together Into a working whole. like the Orient express, which runs from west ern Europe through Berlin Vienna and Budapest to Belgrade, 1t is estimated that the trip from London to Belgrade could be made in 40 hours, as against 45 hours by the Orient express, and from Paris to Belgrade In 30 hours, as against 5 hours by the Orient express,
 The proposed new state of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Is thus given & new importance in offering to the rest of Europe a natural highway through the Balkans to the orient. But 1t has an added interest to the high officials and diplomats here in the Balkans and at entente capitals, in being 8 thoroughly practical and natural means of offsetting fhe Berlin Bagdad route southward across middle Europe. Intead of Berlin to Bagdad" is now presented "Bordeaux to Bagdad." with the line of commercial penetration running eastward across en- tente Europe tstead of southward across GNrmRntc Europe.