The lust of Europe for territorial aggrandizement becomes every day more pronounced. From a struggle for self-defense this has become a war of conquest. Germany has appropriated Belgium, Russia fights for the Bosporus and Constantinople, Italy has almost taken Albania—with the approval of Austria, as we have discovered. The westernmost edge of the Balkan Peninsula has fallen; tomorrow the easternmost extremity will fall, together with Constantinople. Will the European Powers then spare us?... What the United States of America did for the preservation of their independence against foreign conquest we Balkan peoples must do unless we would see our doom sealed.
"The Dangers of a Neutral Policy" is the theme of Mir, the organ of the Bulgarian Nationalist Party of Sofia, which on May 29 said: "If Bulgaria remains neutral to the end of the war, she runs the risk of being condemned to live forever within the narrow limits she has today, hemmed in on every side. The duty of the Balkan States is to act in a war which will solve all pending political and national problems."
Serbia's jealousy of Italy, despite that nation's late adhesion to the Allies, was voiced on May 25 by Politika, a Nationalist daily of Belgrade, which accuses Italy of trying to profit at Serbia's expense. The Entente Powers must pay for Italian aid, this paper says; and Italy may be "satisfied with Savoy, Corsica, Malta, Tunis, Algiers, Asia Minor, or Egypt."
Balkan Newspapers
In the left upper corner, the Bulgarian daily Narodai Prava (National Rights) of Sofia, semi-official organ of the Bulgarian Government of Dr. B. Radoslavoff; upper right, the Athenian daily Athinæ (Athens), representing the extreme anti-Venizelists; at lower right, the daily Politika (Politics), an independent paper of Belgrade, Serbia; lower left, the Bucharest (Rumania) daily Dimineata (Morning), an Interventionist paper, and, at center, the Constantinople Khavar (Star), a Pro-Islamist daily.
The Ottoman Empire being under martial law, comment by the Turkish papers regarding military and political events is restricted by the Government. But Enver Pasha, the all-powerful young Turk leader, and his colleague for the Interior, Talaat Bey, early in May gave an interview printed in the Vienna Neue Freie Presse. Enver Pasha predicts the collapse of the Allied campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula, where the French and British hold a small corner against overwhelming odds. "The bringing thither of provisions is extremely difficult," he says, and "even the drinking water for the troops must be brought from the ships." Both he and Talaat Bey report the morale of the Turkish troops to be excellent, "as many of the older officers have been replaced by energetic young men."
H.R.H. PRINCE GEORGE
Duke of Sparta and Crown Prince of Greece
(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)
