13 MARCH 1909, Page 1

The Vienna correspondentof the Times, after remarking that the Note

was not handed to Baron von Aehrenthal until after it had been published in the Press, states that the verbal answer given by the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister showed that his Government could not consider it as entirely satisfactory, because it leaves unanswered the weightiest' points in the recent Austro-Hungarian communication to Servia. The Note, instead of announcing the willingness of Servia to enter into direct communication with the Dual Monarchy, states that the policy hitherto adopted would be continued, and suggests that this policy has been pacific. In point of fact, Servian policy has been the 'reverse. Unless a more satisfactory answer is presently forthcoming, Austria-. Hungary Will be compelled "to apply in a more accentuated form for an unambiguous declaration of Servia's intentions." The Times correspondent states that another feature of the Note which has attracted considerable attention is its opening phrase :—" In accordance with the friendly advice of the Imperial Russian Government." This phrase, we are told, is regarded in Vienna as a recognition of a kind of Russian moral protectorate over Servia, a circumstance hardly calculated to remove the asperities of the international situation."