Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-21
Balkans Held
GIu++ons for
Punishment !
Called Europe S Sore Sp,
Of Last Us Years
BY EDWIN c. HILL

~ IL ~ ~ A...<s
IN THE last 125 years. il,
which the Bal kans have
been the sore spot of Europe,
each settlement has saved only
the amour proper of the diplo-
mats and left the political and
economic snarl a bit worse than
it was before.
Many historians have observed
that If the efforts of peacetime
tIfailed to organize the peninsula
into some semblance of law and
order, there would be scant hope
OF finding solution in the heat
and Brutality of war.
Here's the war, far beyond all
advance billing in its onsweep Of
savagery and hate.
TIIE Balkans may get law and
order But they may also
get ball and chain.
They are gluttonS for punish
ment and right in the thick of
this grade-A Apocalypse they're
throwing out their grab-hooks
10 snatch a slab OF territory
from any unwary neighbor who
is busy Tending off some other
aggression.
All that they nave in commos
Is distaste for each other and
an illusion that the big boys viii
let them keep something If they
can grab il.
That started perhaps around
the year 900 B. when the
Hittltes, thlrSting for lebens-
raum. came that way and
started several centuries OF
blood-lstung.
II was arounu the start OF the
second century that the SlaYa-
first appeared. Then came other
tribes, perhaps along the shores
of the Black Sea. or from the
NORTH, through the passes OF the
CarpathianS.
As they grew in number and
power. they not only challenged
all corners. but kept on taking
In more and more territory un-
tn, in the year SIP, they surged
INTO the suburbs of Constants
nople and the Turks had TO build
wall 20 feet high around the
city, TO keep them out.
OLD Byzantine chronicles.
" most Of them ecclesiastic.
tell us what little we know
about these earlier racial pat
terms of amending strife,
The desert fathers who
brought their meager chronicles
along through the Dark Ages.
called the invaders Huns. &C.
pldcs, Serbs, Bulgars or Avars.
but not even those omniscient
radio Quiz Kids could tell who
was who or which was which.
/ WORD slcuths, trailing some
little scrap of language.
have let in CLEAN Of light here
and there. There is evidence
that Latin was spoken before
the invasion of the Slavs. indi-~
eating that the Caesars had do
clared themselves in on thtN
impromptu milling that was al
ways going on there.
The Persian army took that
route. 10 get licked in Greece.
engaging in much offhand COM
bat on the way.
The NARROW Straits t,ff-fl,t.-
DardanelleS and the mountains
OF Albania have figured in vir-
turally every ASiatic surge into
Europe.
IT WAS moi until the middle Of
the last century that the
Greeks. Serbs and Rumanians
gained a degree of independence
and Self-government, around the
edges of the Ottoman Empire.
The Russo-Turkish War OF
1877 brought the concert of
powers in which there was some
whiting and patching of terri
tory and the Illusion that free
states had been set UP and that
they would, hold together.
In the ensuing years there was
hope of strong Balkan fedora
ton which would resist the Ger
man "Drang mach Osten."
That came 10 nothing. and the
treaty Of Bucharest, following
the Balkan War Of 1912, with
everybody peeling off a slice of
Bulgaria, left them in fine fettle
to get into a brawl with Aus
tria and touch off the World
War, the interlude of illusion
and futility.
This time they are the victims
of the diplomatic failures of the
great powers. But they delayed
too long in building that fedora
ton.
b Copyright 1871. King Festutes synd, Inc.
CII,, h