Though what we have just written may appear pessimistic, we
must not really be counted among the pessimists, for we are still convinced that a general European war will be avoided. If, as we presume is the case, the rumours published in the Pall Mall Gazette of Thursday and also in the Berlin Lokalanzeiger are true, Sir Edward Grey is acting a wise and conciliatory part in urging that a conference should take place of the ambassadors of the Great Powers — there would not be time to get together special delegates—in one of the European capitals, and that they should discuss the following three questions : (1) Albania, (2) the .2Egean Islands, (3) the Dardanelles. It is undoubtedly possible that if a solution satisfactory both to Russia and Austria- Hungary could be obtained upon these points, the matter of the Servian port would prove capable of arrangement. Before we leave the subject let us say once again what we have said in our leading columns. Nothing could be more dangerous at the present moment than to give the impression in Vienna and Berlin that we, and possibly also the French, mean to leave Russia in a position of isolation. If that was once believed in Vienna, it would be very difficult for the Austro-Hungarian statesmen not to act on the assumption that they had Russia at their mercy and that they could harden their hearts and refuse all concessions. The result would in all probability be war, and a war which, as we have said, we should find it impossible to keep out of.
