The king promised me a new command before he despatched me to the Balkans.

The unending strife in the Balkans was caused by Russia in no less degree than by Austria-Hungary, and all the great European nations shared, with opposing views, in the policy of Eastern expansion.

In the Balkans, especially in Serbia, Russia was pursuing a cynical and shameless policy of corruption, nourishing and exciting every ferment of revolt against Austria-Hungary.

Europe has rather Balkanized herself: not only the War came from the Balkans, but also many ideas, which have been largely exploited in parliamentary and newspaper circles.

It was in the Balkans, long regarded as the zone of danger to European peace, that the war-clouds gathered and darkened rapidly.

The next day Germany declared war on Rumania, and the issue was squarely joined in the Balkans, which then became the scene of a mighty struggle for the possession of Germany's road to Constantinople and the East.

The most important gain for either side in the Balkans up to the middle of September was the capture by the Bulgarians and Germans, on September 7, of the great fortress of Turtukai, fifty miles to the southeast of Bucharest, the Rumanian capital, and chief defense of the capital on that side.

GREAT CAMPAIGNS IN THE BALKANS.

During the years that followed, the principal storm-centres in international policy were the Far and Near East, the Balkans, and Morocco.

Austria and the Balkans.

The interest of Russia in the Balkans is partly one of racial sympathy, partly one of territorial ambition, for the road to Constantinople lies through Rumania and Bulgaria.

For, as we have seen, a quarrel between Austria and Russia over the Balkans must, given the system of alliances, unchain a European war.

As M. Zimmermann said to me at the time, the Imperial Government contented itself with maintaining its neutrality in relation to the Balkans, abstaining from any intervention, beyond advice, in the fury of their quarrels.

The contention between France and Germany for the control of Morocco, the contention between Russia and Austria for the control of the Balkans, the contention between Germany and the other Powers for the control of Turkeythese were the causes of the war.

Were they united under one scepter they would be the strongest nation in the Balkans.

But when it became perfectly evident, after the signing of the Treaty of London on May 30th, that the former allies were now to be enemies, the Roumanian government notified Bulgaria that she could not rely upon its neutrality without compensation in the interests of the equilibrium of the Balkans.

The Servian Government hastened to fortify the passes of the Balkans between Bulgaria and the home territory, and the Servian army in Macedonia effected a junction with the Greek army from Salonika.

The Roumanian Government had already appealed to Count Berchtold for Austro-Hungarian support against Russian interference, but Austria-Hungary, like every other great power, expected Bulgaria to win, and she intended that Bulgaria should take the place vacated by Turkey as a counterpoise to Russia in the Balkans.

The settlement of the Balkans described in this article will probably last for at least a generation, not because all the parties to the settlement are content, but because it will take at least a generation for the dissatisfied States to recuperate.

But it will have no power, and probably no desire, to upset the new arrangement in the Balkans.

The settlement is probably a landmark in Balkan history in that it brings to a close the period of tutelage exercised by the great Powers over the Christian States of the Balkans.

" Twice the Austro-Hungarians, in their anxiety to maintain the balance of power in the Balkans, made the mistake of backing the wrong combatant.

It says, "All European Turkey could now be accommodated comfortably between the Landsend and the Tamar, Cornawal alone exceeding its total area and but for its alliance with Germany, Turkey could have been assured of retaining at least sixty thousand square miles of the Eastern Balkans."

German domination over Southern Russia would offer as advantageous, if not a more advantageous, route to the Persian Gulf than through the turbulent Balkans and unreliable Turkey.

Balkans, Fourteen Points on.