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"are not to be crushed, in defiance of international good faith, by the arbitrary will of a strong "and over-mastering Power. I do not believe any nation ever entered into a great " controversy-and this is one of the greatest history will ever know-with a clearer "conscience and stronger conviction that it is not fighting for aggression, not for the "maintenance even of its own selfish interest, but that it is fighting in defence of principles, "the maintenance of which is vital to the civilisation of the world."
A circular issued by the German Humanitarian League, whose members are Germans, contains the following: It is useless to talk of peace until Prussia is deposed from her "throne of skulls, and we call upon every worker who desires the end of this infamous war to "assist in breaking up the group of Prussian conspirators which has indelibly disgraced
Germany in the eyes of the civilised world."
A French paper truly says" Never have people been seen to work with so much "zea! for their ruin," as the Germans are doing in this war.
VII. The Balkan States and the European Alliances.
Until recent years Turkish rule extended over the whole of South Eastern Europe, known as the Balkan Peninsula. The Turkish invaders, coming from Western Asia, captured Constantinople in 1453, and gradually extended their sway over all the native tribes and kingdoms as far as the Adriatic and the borders of Austria, The population of these conquered territories was for the most part of the race that is termed Slavonic, and is akin to a large part of the Russian population. The Turkish Government made no On the contrary, the effort to conciliate the subject races by a just and equitable rule. history of the 450 years of Turkish domination is one long record of brutal tyranny and oppression. During that period many attempts were made by the more warlike tribes to shake off the Turkish yoke, but the risings were mostly put down in bloodshed and pitiless massacre. Greece, however, succeeded in establishing her independence in 1822, and Roumania declared her freedom in 1859. A rebellion which broke out in Bulgaria in 1876 was suppressed in such a cruel manner that the sympathies of the whole of Europe were ealisted on behalf of the down-trodden race, and in the following year Russia declared war on Turkey in order to compel her to grant autonomy to subject states. Russia was prompted to take this step, firstly, because the population of Bulgaria had a racial affinity with her own, and secondly, because they had a common religion. The Turks, of course, were Mohammedans, whereas the Slavs and Serbians were, like the Russians, Christians - adherents of the Greek or Eastern Church, over which Russia has for many years claimed a protectorate. Public opinion in Russia, therefore, would not allow her to stand by while her fellow Christians were being massacred. In the war Russia was successful, and at the Congress of Berlin, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro, were declared autonomous, and soon after became independent.
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It was in this way that the modern Balkan States came into existence. Turkey, however, retained the territory lying to the south of the Balkan mountains, being a broad strip of land bounded on the south by the Sea, and extending from Constanti- nople on the East to the Adriatic on the West. The population in this area was partly Turkish, and partly Serbian, or Greek. Misgovernment and oppression of the non- Turkish people continued, and, in spite of repeated promises of reform, nothing was ever done to mitigate the lot of the Christian subjects. Finally, a league was formed in 1911 between Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece, to come to the rescue of their oppressed countrymen and co-religionists, and to expel the Turk from Europe. War was declared, and after about a year's fighting the Turks were driven back to the gates of Constantinople.
There was thus a prospect of a strong Confederation being formed which would secure the peace of the Balkan Peninsula, freed from the evil domination of the Turks. Germany and Austria had been watching the Balkan war, and were not at all well pleased to see the Balkan States victorious. Germany bad for a number of years been seeking a friendship with Turkey, not from any real sympathy with that country, but in order to secure from Turkey concessions which were later on to lead to an extension of German trade and influence through Asia Minor and into Central Asia. It has been shown in Chapter III. that one of the avowed objects of German ambition was to acquire in some part of the world, no matter where, large colonial possessions so as to serve as an outlet for her surplus population. If such coveted territories could be acquired by peaceable means, well and good; if not, they must be taken by force of arms. The thinly-populated regions of Asia Minor, and the valley of the Euphrates, seemed to offer an easy prey, and, as a first step, Germany obtained from Turkey a concession to build a railway which should stretch from Constantinople to Baghdad and the Persian Gulf. But such a railway would be of little use to Germany, unless the road through Austria and the Balkan States to Constantinople could be kept open. Austria was Germany's ally and could therefore be counted on to further the project, but the Baikan States might object. It was, in fact, well known that the small but warlike State of Serbia would object; hence, Germany, and with her, Austria, were ill pleased to see the young Balkan States becoming strong and united. Her wish was to keep them weak and divided, until she had had time to consolidate her hold over Turkey. Her intention was, when the time came, to sweep both Turkey and the Balkan States into the German net, and so extend German Power and German Kultur over the whole of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
race,
Austria, for reasons of her own, was ill pleased to see the kingdom of Serbia growing in strength and territory. She had recently aunexed by a breach of faith, the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were almost entirely peopled by men of the Serbian Moreover, in the very mixed populations that make up the Austria-Hungarian Empire, there were large numbers of Serbs and Slavs, whose sympathies were with the kingdom of Serbia proper, and an agitation had been going on for many years to bring about a union of all the Slav races. Austria sternly suppressed this movement, but did nothing to remove the cause of it, as she might have done by more equitable treatment of
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