South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-03-17
THE BALKAN QUESTION


lem. In his historic speech Mr.. Wilson outlined
the conditions of solving this queston-the famil-
lar old eastern question" which has plagued
statesmen and diplomats for more than three cen
turies-as follows:
"The evacuation of Roumana, Serbia and
Montenegro with free access to the sea by Serbia,
the restoration of occupied territories the fixing
of the relations of the several Balkan states along
historically established lines of allegiance and ma
tionality, and international guarantees of their
political and economic independence and eco
nomic integrity.
The first of these demands of the president
that with respect to the evacuation of the terri
tories now occupied by the central powers the
territories of Montenegro. Serbia and Roumana,
would mean interposing solid barrier between
Austria and Germany on the one hand, and
Turkey and Bulgaria on the other and would
thus cut Mtteeuropa in half. II would put Serbo-
Roumanan control into effect on portion of the
Danube about the Iron Gates and upon consid-
cradle sections of the now famous Berlin-to-Bag
dat railroad In a word, it would deal death
blow to Mtteleuropa.
In the present article desire to discuss the
more limited problems affecting the Balkan states
themselves, rather than the rest of the world.
What condition is it that MI Wilson seeks to
create or to restore in the Balkan, and why? The
answer to these questions is to be found in the
very recent history of the Balkan states. 1t is not
necessary to 60 back of 1912 to get grip upon
the problems of 1913, despite the fact that most
of the Balkan difficulteS-that is the rivalrieS of
Serb Greek and Bulgar-are themselves thou
sand years Old
Prior to 1912 the several Balkan states had
Jealous they restrained the small Balkan states
from extending their frontiers to include race
brothers in European Turkey because Austria
feared that a Serbian advance would interfere
with Austrian ambition, and Russia felt that Bull
gar success would impede Russian advance The
rvalrieS OF the great powers throttled the legt-
mate ambitions of the little states and the little
state viewed each other with jealousy and ha-
tired, because each desired the same territory.
But in 1912 there was sudden tranSforma-
ton. Turkey had been disclosed in her full weak
ness in the war with Italy, the Young Turkish
revolution had TO come 10 diSoTganize Turkish
armies further. The best moment in a thousand
wears for the little Balkan people came, and they
took it, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, with Mon
tenegro suddenly made A common alliance against
the Turk, and in some measure parcelled out the
respective spheres of Turkish territory which
would satisfy them These ante-bellum agree
mentS must hereafter supply the basis for the
further Balkan settlement for they represent the
claims which are once acceptable to the Balkan
states.
Having made their bargain the Balkan states
struck In a few weeks Turkey was beaten The
Serbs trumphed at KumanOvo and entered Mon
dStir the Greeks won at Yenidze-Vardar and oc-
cupied SalOnCa; the BulgarS were victorious at
NirkKiliSSe and Lule BurgaS, their armies invest
ing Adrianople and approaching the Chatalia
lines the last landmark defense of ConStantinOple.
Turkey was beaten and it had all happened so
suddenly that the great powers had not had time
TO interfere Expecting Turkish victory and
repetition of the events OF the Greco Turkish war
of 1897, they had been COMPOUNDED BY the COM
plete and apparent permanent destruction of
Turkish rule in Europe save in ConStantinope.
Ii now remained for the vctorS to divide the
SpOllS on the basis OF their early agreements But
now the fatal influence of Austrian intrigue was
felt Bulgaria and Serbia had agree upon a d.
vision OF Macedonia which gave USkub to Serbia
and MOnaStir to Bulgaria. But they had also agreed
that northern Albania should fall to the Serbs.
Austria now, at the conference of London. called
hy the great powers to settle the Balkan question
with regard to the interests of the great powers
not the actual victorS, vetoed the proposed ex-
panSion of Serbia TO the SeacoaSt; vetoed the &C
QUESTION of window the Adratic which is
now represented in Mr.. Wilson'S demand for d.
rect access fer Serbia to the sea.
To avoid a general European war, the great
powers accepted AuStriaS view and the free state
of Albania was created-one OF the most pTepOS-
ferrous creations of history Serbia was shut off
from the SeacoaSt But when this had happened
the Serbs demanded from the Bulgar allies COM
penSation elsewhere, particularly as the BugaTS
were demanding Serb aid to reduce AdHanople
From Bulgaria Serbia demanded all of Macedonia
vest of the VaTdar and north Of the line occupied
hv the Greeks and at the same time made an
agreement with Greeks by which, in return for
Greek aid i'm the Vardar valley they agreed to
support the Greek claim to Salonca.