15 JULY 1899, Page 2

Politicians in the Balkans are certainly not amiable. A Bosnian

named Knesevitch on Friday week fired four shots from a revolver at the ex-King Milan, but missed him, and was arrested. He made, it is believed, certain admissions, but at all events the Royal Government saw its chance, and arrested the Radical leader, M. Pasitch, fourteen leading Radical politicians, and thirty other politicians of " ob- noxious " sentiments. It is believed to be quite possible that unless foreign Governments intervene all may be shot, the party contest in Servia being carried on in the spirit of a civil war. The majority desire a revolution, which is pre- vented by the ex-King's influence with the Army, and they therefore employ an assassin, while the ex-King and his son, fearing at once revolution and murder, are ready if they get the chance to massacre their opponents. There is, in fact, an element of savagery throughout the Balkans, due, it may be, to tradition, but more probably due to the long-continued Turkish tyranny, which brutalised the people, who had no remedy against injustice except murderous insurrection.