Vol. 56

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URING the past week interest in Greece has centered in Athens rather than on the frontier. Military movements have not been very clear at this distance, nor so far have they materially changed the sitution reported last week. The Greek army is still in force at Pharsalos, where a battle is hourly expected. The Turks have not yet taken Volo, where they would have turned the Greek position on the east; nor have they taken Velestino, which lies between their forces and Volo. There has been a sharp fight at the latter place, and the Greeks are claiming a victory for General Smolenski, who was in command; but the impression prevails that the importance of the fight was very much exaggerated. What has happened during the week has been an astonishing disclosure of the weakness of the Greek generalship. The troops have fought with desperate courage, but their fighting has gone for naught because of the military incompetency of their leaders. The popular anger at Athens, however indiscreet in expression, is amply justified by the story of the last fortnight. There is very little doubt that two weeks ago the Greeks were not only holding their own against a much superior force, but were actually gaining ground. They were apparently secure on the Macedonian side of the mountains, and in a position to strike effectively at Elassona, when the order came for retreat, and they were compelled, in a fury of anger, to give up the eastern frontier to the Turks. Under Smolenski they were not only holding the Reveni pass, but they were actually driving the Turks back when the Crown Prince ordered them, first of all, to halt, and then to retreat and abandon that whole line of frontier. One blunder followed another in swift succession; advantage after advantage was cast aside, position after position

No. 2

abandoned, the bravery of the men every where neutralized; and it is not surprising that, in spite of superb courage, the retreat from Larissa became a disgraceful panic. The Greek fleet, which was the most effective weapon in their hands, has done nothing, apparently, save to bombard a few unimportant towns and destroy stores. In Epirus, where the Greeks have been steadily successful from the start, no real advantage appears to have been gained.

Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the Greeks feel as if they had been handed over to their enemies by their own Government, no less than by the allied Powers. The feeling of antagonism to the dynasty has been deep and bitter, and its future is still very far from being secure. The feeling is general that court favor, rather than competency, has determined the organization of the Greek staff, and that the attempts of the King and the Crown Prince to discharge military functions have been in the last degree disastrous. Yielding to the pressure of public opinion, which was rapidly ripening for revolution, King George, on Thursday of last week, dismissed the Premier, M. Delyannis, and called to that position M. Ralli, the leader of the Opposition. The new Premier is in the prime of life; is a graduate of the University of Athens; was a student at Paris, and has been a leader of the Bar, and a member of Parliament for more than twenty years. He was Minister of Justice in 1880, and Minister of the Interior in 1892. He is noted for decision, courage, frankness, and he is believed to be a republican at heart. He has never been a favorite at court, and his appointment in this critical moment indicates the extremity into which the

King was driven. The policy of the new Ministry, as announced by M. Ralli, will be to make the best of the situation; that is to say, to reorganize the army as rapidly as possible, and to continue the struggle, if such a course is feasible; if not, to secure peace on the most honorable terms. Those terms involve the autonomy of Crete, and the rectification of the frontier in accordance with the pledges of the Great Powers. As the Powers have many times declared for both these proposals, it is difficult to see how they can be set aside when the question of the adjustment of differences between Turkey and Greece is finally settled.

Meanwhile the growing divergence between the Powers becomes more distinct. France is reported to have declared very plainly that Turkey will not be permitted to despoil the Greeks; English sentiment is distinctly in that direction. On the other hand, the Emperor of Germany has personally congratulated the Sultan on the success of the Turkish arms—a success to which Germany has made, it ought to be said, no small contribution through the presence in the Turkish army of a number of German officers, some of whom are still on the active list of the German army. The newspapers are full of reports of the coming intervention of the Great Powers and of the conditions which they will impose upon the contestants, but it is to be noted that the signs of discord are much more numerous than those of concord. The Eastern situation is much more likely to be settled in accordance with the determination of Russia and Germany than with the sentiment or the wishes of France and England. An interview with the Austrian Ambassador at Berlin has been widely published, and has made a profound impression. The words put in the Minister's mouth are so unusually frank and bold that their very audacity makes them credible. If these statements are to be believed, the three Emperors have made what ought to be called an Unholy Alliance. Germany and Austria have quietly dropped Italy, after using her for their own purposes and persuading her to load herself with debt; Russia has turned against France, after

having secured all the money that she needed in the way of a loan; the three Emperors have banded themselves together for the repression of the liberal movement wherever it shows itself. Under this scheme Crete must belong to Turkey, but with a certain amount of local autonomy. The sovereigns, however, graciously agree that the Turks shall not take the advantage of their successes to further diminish Greek territory. It is in South Africa, however, that the Unholy Alliance is to disclose its policy in the most direct fashion. England is to be thwarted at every turn, and South Africa is to be divided up to meet the wishes of the amiable Emperor William, to whom is also credited the scheme of announcing himself as the successor to the English throne when the Queen passes away.

This announcement may be taken for what it is worth. It is very clear, however, that the English Government is preparing for possible contingencies in South Africa. When the matter of an extra military credit of one million dollars to be used in South Africa came up in the House of Commons, and was made the basis of a charge by Sir William Harcourt that the Government was trying to get up a war in that section, Mr. Chamberlain, usually so cool and shrewd, lost his temper, and convinced the Liberals that, while the intention imputed to him was probably too large, it was not wholly wide of the mark. The presence of a British squadron off Delagoa Bay is not explained by the statement of the Admiralty that it is there for purely routine work. People have been saying for some time that a battle-ship, six cruisers of the latest build, and a gunboat are not needed for ordinary purposes on the South African coast, There is evidence of some kind of understanding between England and Portugal with regard to Delagoa Bay. No Portuguese Ministry could for a moment, in the present state of public opinion, dispose of Delagoa Bay to England, but such a Ministry might for a proper consideration quietly agree to allow the English to use Delagoa Bay as if it were their own. That is apparently what is being done. Whatever the uncertainties of the immediate future may be, it is clear that Engiand

means to maintain her supremacy in South Africa at all costs, and that neither the antagonism of the Boers nor the alliance of the Emperors will divert her from that policy.

The division of the new Austrian Reichsrath into small groups was commented upon in these columns when the results of the recent elections were announced, but the extreme to which this subdivision has run is brought out by a correspondent of the London "Times," who says that the new Reichsrath contains at least twenty-five separate political groups. There are 62 members of the Young Czech group, 59 of the Polish group, 50 German progressists, while more than 250 are divided among three different groups of Socialists and six different Nationalist groups, brought together along lines of race or speech. Such a subdivision as this may be said to mark the disintegration of political parties, since the principal division in most cases is in no sense political, but racial, lingual, or local. Groups are organized, as a rule, around some small local interest or about some distinctively racial feeling or object. Such a subdivision of parties as this represents an extreme subdivision of the people behind their representatives, and explains the extraordinary difficulties of governing the complex Austro-Hungarian Empire. There seems to be very little hope that any satisfactory financial arrangement can be made between the two empires, and the only solution held out is the possible action of the Emperor through the instrumentality of a decree.

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No great importance attaches to the news that the Queen Regent of Spain has signed a decree looking to applying to Cuba the scheme of reform announced about three months ago, and then outlined in The Outlook. The insurgents absolutely refuse to even consider a peace based on these reforms, demanding independence; and, while military law rules in Cuba, the application of the reforms to the parts of the island held by Spain can, in the nature of things, be little more than a farce. Meanwhile the war goes on with no positive results and very little actual fighting of battles. A typical epi

sode was that announced by the press in bold head-lines as "A Great Victory," "Important Battle." It consisted in the explosion of some dynamite bombs concealed under a road over which Spanish troops were marching. Some of the troops were killed by the explosion--accounts vary in fixing the number from ten to two hundred; the Spanish troops retreated homeward, and the Cubans in the hill-tops fired a fusillade of victory. An interesting account of an interview with Señor Cánovas has been written for "Harper's Weekly" by Mr. Poultney Bigelow. The Prime Minister, referring to the proposed reforms, said: "The Government has given its pledge, and Cuba will have everything which a republic could desire short of separation from the mother country. She has now liberty of the press and liberty of speech as complete as we have in Spain; and, as you know, here in Spain the papers have a license as unbridled as in America. What we must work for is peace, in order that we may develop commercial relations." Señor Cánovas commented courteously but with some natural wonder, on the fact that "so great a nation as the United States, with such vast political and commercial interests with Spain and SpanishAmerican countries, should send to represent these interests a gentleman with whom it was out of his power to converse intelligibly." Mr. Hannis Taylor, the new Minister to Spain, it seems, speaks neither Spanish nor French. Mr. Bigelow states that even the present Secretary of the Legation at Madrid cannot speak Spanish. The suggestion has been made-and we think it a good one- —that retired army and navy officers who are still in robust health, as many of them are, would make excellent material for foreign appointments because of their special training and education.

There is a difference this year between British thriftiness and American spendthriftiness. This was clearly brought out last week in the submission by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) of the British Budget. At Washington we are treated to various guesses of needed appropriations; these are revised and generally enlarged, but without any exact knowledge of what the coming