LYMAN ABBOTT, Editor-in-Chief

The Montenegrin Victory

Last week Skutari fell. Thus Turkey retreats further and further into the corner," as is graphically depicted in the first of the two cartoons from Punch" reproduced on the next two pages. Cenuries ago the Turks built fortified works Dout Skutari upon high hills. These fortications have since been strengthened and us the force of ten thousand troops or more under the efficient Essad Pasha was ble for six months and a half to resist the onslaught of the Montenegrin army. A week before Bulgaria, Servia, and Greece declared war against Turkey, Montenegro, acting entirely by herself, declared war. It was certainly a striking event, that of a State smaller than Connecticut and with a population of less than three hundred thousand attacking an enemy whose area extended over a million and a half square miles and whose population exceeded thirtyfive millions. The war between Montenegro and Turkey opened on October 8. It took

week for the Montenegrins to fight through the strongly fortified frontier and reach Skutari. From that time on they hammered away in a heroic effort to capture the city; indeed, though they lacked many of the resources of contemporary warfare, their attacks resembled those of the Japanese before Port Arthur. According to the Turkish commander, the final surrender was due to the fact that his provisions had entirely given out. Aside from the garrison, the town of Skutari is supposed to comprise about thirty-five thousand people, eight thousand of whom are Christians and twenty-seven thousand Mohammedans. It is a picturesque place on the lake of that name. Its capture realizes a long-cherished ambition. Although Montenegro itself has never been conquered. by Tur ey, the Turks four centuries ago did take this outlying town which once belonged Montenegro; hence the Monte

negrins now feel as if they were regaining some of their own territory. It is quite impossible for the ordinary European or American to estimate the strength of the anti-Turk and pro-Slav sentiment in Montenegro. As with no other people, the persistence of revenge has burned deep in the Montenegrin soul. The kapa, or cap, which distinguishes all Montenegrins is emblematic of Balkan tragedies, the crimson center typifying the sea of blood in which the peninsula has been washed by Turkey, the broad band of black silk which encircles it being a sign of mourning for the repression of the Slavs; while around the cipher of the Montenegrin king are golden bands, one for each century of strife. It is thus a notable event in Montenegrin history to have captured Skutari, and King Nicholas announced, on hearing of the victory, "Skutari will remain Montenegrin."

The Montenegrin Situation

But will it ? Not if the Powers, following Austria's lead, have their way. Having lost prestige by the outcome of the Balkan war, Austria determined to secure some compensation. She apparently did so in obtaining the assent of the European Powers to her desire to name the capital of the independent State of Albania, recently erected by them. Austria's reason for this was that her influence over the new State would be greater in proportion as the capital of that State was nearer her own boundaries. So determined was Austria, indeed, that she declared her willingness to obtain her wish by armed force, and was only deterred by the more or less unwilling consent of the Powers to ask Montenegro to abandon the siege, the Powers having already obtained, as some offset, Austria's consent to the transference to Servia and Montenegro of a large territory formerly regarded as Albanian. When the Powers announced this