THE r ui uttE OF THE BALKANS.
[To THE EDITOR or TH3 " srETAToR."1
Sit,—Conditions in the publishing world are such as to cause delays which sometimes render almost antiquated certain statements before they see the light. Such was the ease with one or two remarks which I ventured to make in my work, Nationality as a Factor in Modern History. It consisted of lectures delivered at Cambridge in the Michaelmas Term 1915. The Earl of Cromer, in the courteous review of that book in your issue of July 29th, expressed surprise at my refusal to say anything about the future of Constantinople. But in November last, when Russia was only beginning to rally after her long retreat, when also the Allies were scarcely holding their own at any point, it seemed unlikely that Russia would gain that city. The possession of it implies the holding of the Tchatalja lines on the north-west, of the Dardanelles, and of the whole of the Asiatic approaches to the Straits and the Sea of Marmora—a burden of responsibility which will in any case tax her strength to the utmost, and at that time seemed almost out of the question.
As regards the solution of Balkan questions by a mixed Commission appointed by the Powers, it is to be hoped that the issue of the war will be to redress the balance of authority in Europe so as to ensure fair and unbiassed judgments in Balkan and other affairs. There was no such judgment in the Balkan solution of 1913, which was decided mainly by the Central Empires. But it cannot be too clearly understood that such an issue depends on the definite triumph of the Allies, apart from which all the programme-making, now so much in vogue, is mere
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